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JAN ii4:ma 
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( 

HISTORY OF GREECE 



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FOR Ao^^J 



High Schools and Academies 



BY 

GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD, Ph.D. 

^TOR IN THE HISTORY OF GREECE AND ROME IN HARVARD 
:iVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE ATHENIAN CONSTITUTION " 



(I 



'HE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1899 

All rights reserved 



24585 



COPVRIGHT, 1899, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



T 




NoriDoot) 33rr3S 

J. S. Cushins & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U. S. A. 



%0\>^- 



/ 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

To the friends who have taken an interest in this volume, 
and who by criticism and suggestion have aided me in writ- 
ing it, I owe a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Charles Lane 
Hanson of the Mechanic Arts High School, Boston, has read 
both manuscript and proofs, and has aided me especially in 
adapting the book, in form and in matter, to the use of 
secondary pupils. While his successful experience in high 
school work and his good judgment have been of great 
service to me, I am no less indebted to him for the encour- 
agement and inspiration I have drawn from his friendship. 
Professor Emerton, my colleague, who has read most of the 
manuscript, has given me the benefit of his valuable criticism 
on the plan and method of the book. The proofs have 
been read by another colleague. Professor Wright, to whose 
scholarship important corrections and improvements are due. 
These helpers should not, however, be considered responsi- 
ble v.^ the shghtest degree for any faults the book may con- 
tain. In the quotation of ancient authors I have followed, 
as closely as my plan would admit, the translators recom- 
mended in the Bibliography at the close of the volume. 
For the illustrations Professor White and Professor Moore 
have kindly placed at my disposal the collections of photo- 
graphs belonging to the Department of Classics and the 
Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University. From these 



vi Ackiiowledzinent 



i> 



collections all the pictures have been selected excepting the 
'' Eirene and Plutus," taken by permission from Gardner's 
Handbook of Greek Sculpture, and the " Hermes of Praxit- 
eles," the original photograph of which has been furnished 
me by the publishers. Under my direction Mr. William 
Leonard Snow made the map of " Physical Greece," and 
Miss Lida Shaw King made all the other full-page maps. 
Some of these — especially the " Mycenaean Age " and 
" Greece at the Dawn of History," which are distinctly 
original — have required patience and care in the collection 
and sifting of the material. Miss King and Mr. Snow 
are pupils of mine whose able assistance I am glad to 
acknowledge. 



) 



THE MISSION OF THE BOOK 

The ancient Greeks were the most gifted race the world 
has known, — a people with whose achievements in govern- 
ment and law, in literature, art, and science, every intelligent 
person ought to be acquainted. Not only is the story of 
Greece in itself interesting and attractive, but the thoughts 
and deeds of her great men are treasures preserved in 
history for the enrichment of our own lives. 

This volume is intended as an aid to the study of the 
subject. While the " Helps " furnished by the closing chapter 
indicate a method of digesting the material, — a method of 
training the whole mind rather than the mere memory, — 
the marginal references are a guide to the use of the Greek 
authors, from whom chiefly we derive our knowledge of the 
history, thought, life, and character of this magnificent race. 
An acquaintance with the works of the historians, orators, 
poets, and philosophers of Greece, in the original lan- 
guage or even through good translations, is no mean part 
of a liberal education. 

Not only were the Greeks by nature the most gifted of 
men, but they occupied a country which, more than any 
other in the world, favored the growth of enterprise, intelli- 
gence, imagination, and taste. As it is impossible, without 
taking the country into account, to appreciate this many- 
sided development, it has been my aim throughout the 



viii The Mission of the Book 

book, by bringing the geography into immediate connection 
with the history, to show the influence of surroundings on 
character. 

Though the Greeks were constantly at war, we must not 
lay too much stress on the details of their campaigns and 
battles. It is far more profitable to learn the character 
and achievements of the great men, whatever their field of 
activity, to follow the development of the social and political 
life, and to enter into the spirit of the civilization. Is it 
too much to hope that this book may do a good service in 
directing the attention of the reader to the nobler and more 
instructive aspects of Greek life ? 

Cambridge, December 12, 1898. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The Beginnings of the Greeks — The Prehistoric Age . . . i 



CHAPTER II 
The Beginnings of States and of Leagues — Colonial Expansion . 20 

CHAPTER III 

Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon — Kingship, Aristocracy, 

and Timocracy .... ..... 41 

CHAPTER IV 

Peloponnese and Athens — From Tyranny to Democracy . . 64 

CHAPTER V 

The Growth of National Unity through Literature and Religion . 87 

CHAPTER VI 

Conquest of Asiatic Greece by the Lydians and the Persians . 105 

CHAPTER VII 
The War with Persia and Carthage . . . . . .120 

CHAPTER VIII 
'1 he Age of Cimon — Harmony among the Greek States . . 140 



Contents 



CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

The. Age of Pericles — Growing Antagonism between Oligarchy 

and Democracy . 163 



CHAPTER X 

The Peloponnesian War to the End of the Sicilian Expedition . 190 



CHAPTER XI 

The New Learning and the Closing Years of the War 

CHAPTER XII 

The End of Freedom in Sicily and in Italy . 



217 



239 



CHAPTER XIII 
The Supremacy of Sparta . , . . . . . . 250 

CHAPTER XIV 
Thebes attempts to gain the Supremacy — The Progress of Culture 275 



The Rise of Macedon . 



CHAPTER XV 



CHAPTER XVI 



297 



Alexander's Empire and the Spread of Hellenic Civilization over 

the East 310 



CHAPTER XVII 
Helps to the Study of Greek History 
Periods of the History . 
Examples of Outlines . 
Studies ..... 
Events in Chronological Order 
Bibliography 



Index 367 



331 
331 
337 
343 
355 
363 



MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



FULL-PAGE MAPS 

Physical Greece . 

The Mycenaean Age . 

Greece at the Dawn of History 

The Greek World 

The Persian Empire and Greece 

Greece at the Time of the \Yar with Persia 

The Athenian Empire at its Height 

Greece at the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War 

Greece after the Battle of ISIantineia 

The Empire of Alexander the Great 



PAGE 

facing 2 

7 
29 

40 

115 

127 

167 

195 
282 

^16 



MAPS IX THE TEXT 



The Peloponnesian League 

Thermopylae 

Salamis 

The Acropolis of iVthens 

Bay of Pylos 

Syracuse (415-413 i;.c.) 

The Hellespont . 

Kingdom of Dionysius 

The Theban Tactics in the Battle of Leuctra 



79 
128 
132 
179 
201 
213 
236 
243 
273 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Acropolis of Athens 

The Gate of the Lions at M) 

The Olympieium . 

^^gina. 

Olympia 

The Parthenon . 



cenK 



Frontispiece 
facing 



6 

75 

85 
103 

181 



XI 



Xll 



Maps and Illustrations 



The Temple of Victory and the 


Propylsea . 


facing 183 


Phyle 


. 


254 


The Modern Town of Sparta 




268 


The Vale of Tempe 




297 


The Battle of Issus (?) 


. 


312 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 



Royal Tombs at Mycenae 










I 


Gallery in the Wall of Tiryns 










4 


'* Treasury of Atreus " at Mycenae 










8 


Ideal Statue of Homer 










10 


Vessels and Idols from Mycense . 










18 


"Theseus" 










20 


Artemis 










23 


Cecrops and Daughter 










25 


Chalcis .... . . 










32, 


The Areopagus 










41 


Poseidon, Dionysus (?), and emeter (?) . 










64 


The Wrestlers ...... 










73 


Athenian Lady in the Time of Pisistratus 










74 


"Sappho" 










87 


A Greek Vase 










93 


Delphi with Modern Village 










99 


Apollo Belvedere 










lOQ 


Athlete 










102 


" Themistocles " 










117 


Marathon 










120 


" The Warrior of Marathon " 










122 


A Persian Archer .... 










129 


Bay of Salamis 










131 


Cave of Apollo in Delos 










140 


An Athenian Gravestone 










I5S 


Discobolus 










159 


Zeus 










160 


Pericles ...... 










163 


Magistrates 










177 


Athena Parthenos .... 










180 


Erechtheium 










182 


"Theseium" 










184 


Lapith and Centaur .... 










189 



Maps and Illustrations 



Xlll 



Victory 










190 


Athenian Knights 










204 


K Trireme . 










216 


Euripides 










217 


Socrates 










223 


A Sepulchral Vase of Marble 








237 


Temple of Poseidon at Poestum . 








239 


Spartan Mosaic ...... 








250 


Spartan Vase 








259 


Citadel of Corinth . . . . . 








263 


The Plain of Mantineia .... 








267 


Mount Ithome and the City Wall of Messene 








275 


Valley of the Styx in Arcadia 








277 


Battle between the Greeks and the Amazons 








283 


Eirene and Plutus 








285 


Theatre at Epidaurus . 










287 


Aphrodite of Cnidus 










289 


Satyr of Praxiteles 










291 


Meleager 










293 


The Hermes of Praxiteles 










295 


Demosthenes 










303 


Battlefield of Chaeroneia 










308 


Alexander in Battle 










315 


Choragic Monument of Lysicrates 








328 


Corinthian Capital 










335 




Royal Tombs at Mycen.^ 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



CHAPTER I 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREEKS — THE PRE- 
HISTORIC AGE (to about 700 B.C.) 

The people from whom the ancient Greeks were descended Origin of the 



once lived, with other kindred races, probably in the great 
steppe which extends across southern Russia into Asia, and is 
bounded on the south by the Black, the Caspian, and the 
Aral seas. As these races gradually separated and moved 
apart in various directions, the ancestors of the Greeks jour- 
neyed southward into the peninsula now named Greece. 
' liey came in bands, which we call tribes, each under its 

B I 



Greeks. 
P. 331- 



2 The Pi'ehistoric Age 

chief; their warriors travelled on foot, dressed in skins and 
armed with pikes and with bows and arrows, while their 
women and children rode in two-wheeled ox-carts. They 
found Greece, their future home, a rugged, mountainous 
country, with narrow valleys and only a few broad plains. 
Everywhere were dense forests haunted by lions, wild boars, 
and wolves. Here and there the invaders halted and built 
their villages, — mere groups of rude, round huts of brush 
and clay, with roofs of grass or reeds. In time of peace, the 
new settlers tended their herds of goats, sheep, swine, and 
cattle ; and many a hard fight they had to protect their flocks 
//. xviii, from the savage beasts : " Herdsmen were following with 

577 ff- their kine, four of them, and nine dogs fleet of foot came 

up behind. Then two terrible lions among the foremost kine 
seized a loud-roaring bull, who bellowed mightily as they 
attacked him, and the dogs and young men sped after him. 
The lions rent the great bull's hide and were devouring his 
vitals and his black blood, while the herdsmen in vain urged 
on their dogs, for these shrank from biting the lions, but 
stood hard by and barked." 
Life in early In the fertile valleys the villagers dug the ground with a 
Greece. sharp Stick and raised wheat, barley, flax, and some garden 

vegetables. But they owned no farms, as they had not 
yet learned that land was valuable ; they could get all they 
needed by fighting for it, and they had no thought of staying 
long in one place. Every man went armed to protect his 
Thuc. i, 2-8. life and property. One village was continually fighting with 
another, and the people who had settled homes lived in 
constant fear of attack from fresh invaders. The villagers, 
therefore, built no good houses, planted no orchards or vine- 
yards, but stood ever ready to gather their scanty wealth 
into ox-carts and to join their tribe in search of more fertile 
fields or homes less exposed to the enemy. Thus the Greeks 



The Phoenicians 3 

kept moving about and fighting among themselves for many 
years, perhaps for centuries. The time during which they 
lived in tribes and villages in this unsettled manner we may 
term the Tribal Age. 

On the west of their country they found a nearly Eastern and 
straight coast line, with steep shores making it difficult ^^^^^^^^ 
to reach the water's edge ; and, as they looked over the 
sea, they saw few islands to tempt them from the main- 
land. But those who came to the eastern coast found 
harbors everywhere and islands near at hand. They be- 
gan at once to make small boats and to push off to the 
islands. 

But they must have been astonished when they saw for The Phoeni- 

the first time strange black vessels, much larger than their ^!^^^ ^^.^"^ 
_ . 7 . civilization. 

own, entering their bays. These were Phoenician ships from 
Sidon, an ancient commercial city, and in them came " greedy 
merchant men, with countless gauds " for trading with the 
natives. Though in most respects the Greeks were then as 
barbarous as the North American Indians, they were eager to 
learn and to imitate the ways of the foreigners. The chief- 
tains along the east coast welcomed Asiatic arts and arti- 
sans. From these strangers they gradually learned to make 
and use bronze tools and weapons, and to build in stone. 
Contented in these homes, they outgrew their fondness for 
roving. Skilled workmen from the East built walled pal- 
aces for the native chiefs; artists decorated these new 
dwellings, painted, carved, and frescoed, made vases and 
polished gems. Those chieftains who were wise enough 
to receive this civilization gained power as well as wealth 
by means of it. With their bronze weapons they con- 
quered their uncivilized neighbors, and, in course of time, 
formed small kingdoms, each centring in a strongly forti- 
fied castle. 



The Prehistoric Age 



Earliest king- 
doms. 



Tiryns. 



It is interesting to notice where these kingdoms were 
situated. Greece, before it was inhabited by man, stood 
far higher above the level of the sea than it does now; 
but for some cause it sank till it was half-drowned in 
water. The sea covers the earlier coast plain and washes 
the base of the mountains; so that there is no continuous 
strip of farm land along the shores of Greece as there is 
in the United States; but the mountain streams deposited 
soil enough to form small but fertile deltas. The earliest 
kingdoms occupied these rich lands, generally bordering 

upon a good harbor, 
and in many a case 
the king from his 
castle perched upon 
some hilltop could 
look over his whole 
realm. Just outside 
the castle walls the 
leading men of the 
kingdom grouped 
their houses in a 
small city. One of 
these communities 
was Tiryns, on a low 
flat hill about a mile 
from the Argolic 
Gulf, the oldest city, 
so far as we know, 
in Europe. Its walls were of huge, unshaped stones, 
built, the myths would make us believe, by a race of giants 
called Cyclopes. Within these defences was a great palace. 
It contained a multitude of apartments, including courts 
and halls for men and women; a bathroom with conduit 




Gallery in the Wall of Tiryns 



Tiryns 5 

and drains; sleeping rooms, corridors, and porticos. 
The palace and walls tell a vivid tale of the wealth 
and luxury of the king, and of his unlimited authority 
over the lives and labor of his subjects. All this re- 
quired time; many generations or even centuries may 
have elapsed between the landing of the first Phoenician 
sailors on the shores of Greece and the building of the 
first castle. 

It is only recently that Dr. Schliemann has unearthed cf. p. 10. 
the foundation of this palace; but an epic poet sang about 
it, or one like it, twenty-five centuries or more ago. The 
following is his idealized description of a palace resem- 
bling that of Tiryns : — 

"Meanwhile Odysseus went to the famous palace of The palace. 
Alcinoiis, and his heart was full of many thoughts as he 
stood there or ever he had reached the threshold of bronze. 
For there was a gleam as it were of sun and moon through 
the high-roofed hall of great-hearted Alcinoiis. Brazen 
were the walls that ran this way and that from the thresh- 
old to the inmost chamber, and round them was a frieze (9^. vii, 84 ff. 
of blue, and golden were the doors that closed in the good 
house. Silver were the door-posts that were set on the 
brazen threshold, and silver the lintel thereupon, and the 
hook of the door was of gold. And on either side stood 
golden hounds and silver, which Hephaestus ^ wrought with 
his cunning, to guard the palace of great-hearted Alcinoiis, 
being free from death and age all their days. And within 
were seats arrayed against the wall this way and that, from 
the threshold to the inmost chamber, and thereon were 
■spread light coverings finely woven, the handiwork of 
/omen. There the Phaeacian chieftains were wont to sit 

^ The artisan god. 



6 The Pi'ehistoric Age 

eating and drinking, for they had continual store. Yea, 
and there were youths fashioned in gold, standing on firm- 
set bases, with flaming torches in their hands, giving light 
through the night to the feasters in the palace. And he 
had fifty handmaids in the house, and some grind the yel- 
low grain on the millstone, and others weave webs and 
turn the yarn as they sit, restless as the leaves of the tall 
poplar tree; and the soft olive oil drops off that linen, so 
closely is it woven. For as the Phseacian men are skilled 
beyond all others in driving a swift ship' upon the deep, 
even so are the women the most cunning at the loom, for 
Athena hath given them notable wisdom in all fair handi- 
work and cunning wit. And without the courtyard, hard 
The garden, by the door, is a great garden, of four ploughgates, and 
a hedge runs round on either side. And there grow tall 
trees blossoming, pear trees and pomegranates, and apple 
trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs and olives in their 
bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth, neither 
faileth, winter or summer, enduring through all the year. 
Evermore the West Wind blowing brings some fruits to 
birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and 
apple upon apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon cluster of 
the grape, and fig upon fig. There, too, hath he a fruitful 
vineyard planted, whereof the one part is being dried by 
the heat, a sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes 
men are gathering, and yet others they are treading in the 
wine-press. In the foremost row are unripe grapes that 
cast the blossom, and others there be that are growing 
black to vintaging. There, too, skirting the furthest 
line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, 
that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two foun- 
tains of water, whereof one scatters his streams all about 
the garden, and the other runs over against it beneath 




The Gate of the Lions at Mycen^ 



Mycence 7 

the threshold of the courtyard, and issues by the lofty 
house, and thence did the townsfolk draw water. These 
were the splendid gifts of the gods in the palace of 
Alcinous." 

Mycenae, "rich in gold," is younger than Tiryns; but Mycenae. 
because it was better situated, its king in course of time 
became ruler of all Argolis. Dr. Schliemann and others //. xi, 46. 
have unearthed in Mycenae not only the walls and palace, 
but also private houses, the homes of lords and servants. 
From these discoveries it is possible to learn how the 
people of Mycenae lived, and even what they wore and 
ate.^ But the most remarkable objects which they found 
were the tombs and their contents. In some of these 
tombs " lay the bodies of the prehistoric rulers of Mycenae. 
In two of them lay three women, their heads adorned with P. Gardner, 
lofty gold diadems, their bodies covered with plates of gold P' ^^' 
which had been sewn on their dresses. In four graves lay 
bodies of men, varying in number from one to five, some 
wearing masks or breastplates, all adorned with gold, not 
less profusely than the women, and buried with arms and 
utensils, with vessels of gold and silver, with a wealth of 
objects of use and luxury sufficient to stock a rich museum 
at Athens, and fairly astonish those who see it for the first 
time." Some of the tombs are magnificent stone build- 
ings shaped like beehives, and they contained so much 
wealth that Dr. Schliemann mistook them for treasure- 
houses. Indeed one of them was long known as the 
"Treasury of Atreus." The people of this age believed, 
no doubt, that the souls of men after death enjoyed all 
this splendor in their tombs. 

We call the civilization of this time "Mycenaean," but 

^For an interesting account of this, Tsountas and Manatt, The 
Mycencean Age, chs. iv, vi. 



8 



The Prehistoric Age 



Area of the there were many other cities like Mycenae, though less 

Mycenaean grand. While barbarous tribes were still roaming over the 

interior, these cities near the coast and on the islands 




"Treasury of Atreus" at Mycenae 



Colonization 
of the ^gean 
islands and 
coasts. 



Cf. p. 3- 



were gradually developing. Asiatic culture, planted on 
Greek soil, was preparing the way for our modern life. 

The Mycenaean civilization was at its best from about 
1500 to 1000 B.C. During this period the Greeks were 
outgrowing the peninsula, and were settling the islands 
and east coast of the ^gean Sea. They could pass with- 
out danger, without losing sight of land, across its entire 
breadth. Indeed, from the mountains of southern Euboea 
the Greeks could look quite across the sea to the hills of 
Chios. From Attica they settled the Cyclades near by, 



Ionia 9 

and then the adjacent coast countr}' of Asia Minor, which 
was afterwards named Ionia. The people of Attica, of 
Ionia, and of the islands between belonged therefore to 
one great race, the Attic-Ionic, just as the inhabitants of 
the United States and of England form one race, the Anglo- 
American. In like manner the Dorians took possession 
of the south ^ilgean islands^and coasts, while the ^ilolians 
settled north of the lonians. These are the three great 
historic races of the Greeks. 

We are not to think of these colonists as leaving Greece Greece, or 
to settle in foreign lands, but rather as extending the ^^^'^^' 

defined. 

boundaries of their own countr}'. Greece, or Hellas, was 
the countr}^ of the Greeks, or Hellenes,^ wherever they 
might be; at the time which we have now reached — looo 
B.C. — the name included, in addition to the peninsula, 
most of the islands of the ^gean Sea and the larger part 
of the western coast of Asia Minor. 

The colonists had less wealth than the people of the Ionia, 
mother countrj', but they enjoyed greater freedom, and were 
more vigorous in body and mind. During the next three iooo-7cx5B.g 
centuries, while the Mycenaean culture was declining, the 
colonists in the ^-Egean were building up a new civiliza- 
tion far higher than that which they had left behind them 
on the continent. "Of all men whom we know, the 
lonians had the good fortune to build their cities in the Hdt. i, 142. 
most favorable position for climate and seasons." Civili- 
zations have been born in the most fertile spots on earth, 
where the struggle for existence has not been all-absorb- 
ing, where men could easily produce food, clothing, and 
shelter, and have some leisure to think of other things 
than the mere necessities of life. Thus the earliest civ- 

^ In this book, Greece and Hellas, Greeks and Hellenes, are used 
synonymously; cf. pp. 40, 103 and n. 2. 



lO 



TJie Prehistoric Age 



ilization of the world was, as Herodotus says, "the gift 
of the Nile." In like manner Ionia, because of its fertile 
soil, its delightful climate, and its openness to the sea, 
threw off Asiatic influence and became the birthplace of 
the first distinctly European civilization. 
Homeland We can learn the character and customs of the early 
the Epic Age. jonians from their minstrels, who travelled about and sang 
to the kings and nobles. These wandering bards were 

the makers of the two 
great epic poems, the 
7//^^ and the Odyssey, 
The Iliad, composed 
mainly in the tenth 
and ninth centuries 
B.C., is for us the 
oldest piece of Euro- 
pean literature. The 
best modern authori- 
ties believe that it 
was riot the work of 
one poet, but grew 
up gradually in the 
following manner. 
Some ^olian min- 
strel of Asia Minor 
began it by compos- 
ing a tale of consider-- 
able length to glorify 
Achilles, a mythical hero ; Ionian minstrels took up 
the story and enlarged it, bringing into it their own 
ideas and myths. One by one they introduced into the 
poem new heroes, with their warlike deeds, so as to be 
continually furnishing the hearers with something novel 




Ideal Statue of Homer 

(Vatican Museum) 



Ionic Life 1 1 

and pleasing. "Men always prize that song most which (9^. 1,351 f. 
rings newest in the ear." Finally, the poem received its 
finishing touches from scholars who lived about five centu- 
ries after the time of which we are now speaking. The 
Odyssey^ composed mainly in the eighth century B.C., had 
a similar growth. By the name "Homer" we mean any 
one of the minstrels who helped to make either the Iliad 
or the Odyssey, and the Epic Age is the time in which these 
men lived, — about 1000-700 b.c. 

The poet shows us every side of Ionic life in the beauti- 
ful colors of his own imagination. One of his most 
delightful scenes is that from the "Shield of Achilles," 
which represents a group of youths and maidens dancing. 
" There were youths dancing and maidens of costly woo- Youths and 
ing, their hands on one another's wrists. Fine linen the maidens, 
maidens had on, and the youths well-woven doublets 
faintly glistening with oil. Fine wreaths had the maid- 
ens, and the youths daggers of gold hanging from silver 
baldrics. And now would they run round with deft feet 
exceeding lightly, as when a potter sitting by his wheel 
that fitteth between his hands maketh trial of it whether 
it run; and anon they would run in lines to meet each 
other. And a great company stood round the lovely dance //. xviii, 
in joy; and among them a divine minstrel was making 593 ff- 
music on his lyre, and through the midst of them, as he 
began his strain, two tumblers whirled." 

This scene shows us one of the most refined and attrac- The family, 
tive sides of life in that distant age. Family and kin were 
sacred and under the care of "household" Zeus, whose 
altar was the hearth. Parent and child, brothers and 
cousins, united closely by the twofold bond of blood and 
religion, stood by each other in danger, for the state had 
not yet begun to protect the lives of the citizens. Guests 



12 



The Prehistoric Age 



Country life, 

p. 2. 



were also under the care of Zeus, and were treated as 
brothers. The householder kindly entertained the stranger 
with food, lodging, and words of cheer; then bestowing a 
gift in token of friendship, sped him rejoicing on his way. 
Family life was beautiful, and women, within the home, 
were the equals of men. "There is nothing mightier and 

o^. vi, i82ff. nobler," says Homer, "than when man and wife are of 
one heart and mind in a house, a grief to their foes, and 
to their friends great joy, but their own hearts know it 
best." Yet it must by no means be supposed that this 
was a golden age of happiness. Rather, the time was bar- 
barous and cruel; and the minstrel had sad tales to tell of 
war, captivity, and orphanage. 

Men still depended on their herds for a great part of 
their living. Cattle were their principal wealth, and 
served, in the absence of coined money, as a standard 
of value in barter. But they began to take more interest 
in farming and to plant orchards and vineyards. The fol- 
lowing is a picture of one of their modest country estates. 
"Quickly they came to the rich and well-ordered farm- 
land of Laertes, which he had won for himself of old, as 
the prize of great toil in war. There was his house, and 
all about it ran the huts wherein the thralls were wont 
to eat and sleep, bondsmen who worked his will. And 
in the house was an old Sicilian woman who diligently 
cared for the old man, in the upland, far from the city." 
But many a noble owned hundreds of cattle and large 
tracts of land. While slaves and hired men tended these 
estates, the lord lived in the city with his fellows, and 
shared in its religious, social, and political life. 

There were as yet few skilled workmen among the 
Greeks. King Odysseus made his own house and bed- 

7/. vi,323. stead; Queen "Helen of Argos sat among her serving- 



Od. xxiv, 
204 ff. 



The indus- 
tries. 



<3 



Government 1 3 

women and appointed brave handiwork for her hand- 
maidens." Thus the Greeks made at home nearly every- 
thing they needed for house and field. Everybody worked : 
the goddess Athena made her own clothes; the princess 
Nausicaa did the family washing; and serving- women 
ground the meal. Rich wares were brought to them from 
the Orient or from the interior of Asia Minor. Skilled 
female slaves from the same places began among the 
Greeks a native industry in dyeing, weaving, and em- 
broidering. There were smiths and curriers who busied 
themselves in making armor and weapons; the potter 
sitting at his wheel; the leech who cured a wound by 
sucking out the blood, and cunningly spreading thereon 
soothing drugs, or maybe staying the blood with a song . 
of healing; the seer teaching the will of the gods or con- 
ducting a voyage by means of the prophetic art which 
Apollo gave him; and the blind old minstrel delighting 
people with his song and lyre. All these the Greeks of 
the time called craftsmen, and held in high esteem. But 
the unskilled worker for wages, — the man without home, 
master, or patron, — led a miserable life. 

The nobles compelled most of the common people to Thegovern- 
live in the country, as they wanted the city for their own '"^"^* 
use. They called themselves the brave, the mighty, and \. 
the best, in contrast with the base and cowardly men of 
the lower class; and as they believed themselves to be the 
near descendants of the gods, they thought they had a 
right to all the wealth and political authority in the state. 
The chiefs of tribes came together in a council and elected The council 
one of their number king. If the man whom they ap- 
pointed proved to be a wise and vigorous ruler, he might 
hand down his royal authority to his son; otherwise, when 
he died or grew too old to lead in war, the council, pass- 



14 The Prehistoric Age 

ing by his family, filled the office again from their own 
number. 

The king. The king was general, priest, and judge. He led the 

army, prayed to the gods for the city's safety, and settled 
cases of private law. He did not try, however, to keep 
the peace or prevent murder, but allowed the families of 
his state to fight each other as much as they pleased. 
Though the king claimed to rule by divine right, and 
looked back to some god as his great-grandfather, he 
was in reality hampered on all sides by the council. The 
great nobles who composed it helped him in his religious 
services, advised him in war, filled all special offices of 
toil, danger, or honor, and decided suits. 

A trial scene. The following scene from the Shield of Achilles repre- 
sents a trial before the council. " The folk were gathered 
in the assembly place; for there a strife was arisen, two 
men contending about the blood price of a man slain; the 
one avowed that he had paid all, expounding to the people, 
but the other denied that he had received aught; and each 
was fain to gain his point on the word of his witness. 
And the folk were cheering both, as they took part on 
either side. And heralds kept order among the folk, 
while the elders (councillors) on polished stones were 

//.xviii,497fr. sitting in the sacred circle, and holding in their hands 
staves from the loud-voiced heralds. Then before the 
people they rose up and gave judgment in turn. And in 
the midst lay two talents^ of gold, to be given to him 
who should plead among them most righteously." The 
slayer had agreed, according to custom, to pay a kinsman 
of the slain a sum of money to satisfy him for the loss; 
but the latter, alleging that he had not received payment, 
sued the offender before the council. Such an assembly 
1 A talent was at this time a small weight. 



Religion 1 5 

of the people, gathered to hear the deliberation of the 
king and council, was a "town-meeting," the same insti- The 
tution which we find, somewhat modified, in the United ^^^^™ y* 
States. There was no voting; the people merely shouted 
assent or showed disapproval by silence. 

The ideas of popular sovereignty and majority rule were 
totally unknown to the age. The king and council, how- 
ever, laid their more important plans before the assembly 
and were influenced to some extent by its opinion. But 
the council could carry on the government without either 
the king or the assembly, and it began to do so in the 
Ionian states about the middle of the eighth century B.C. 
It did not abolish these institutions, but, it degraded the 
office of king to a mere priesthood, and rarely called the 
assembly together. In this manner the government ceased 
to be a monarchy, or rule of one, and became an aristoc- 
racy, or rule of "the best." The latter form of govern- 
ment is also called an oligarchy, or rule of the few. 

The religion of the Greeks had changed radically since Religion. 
their migration from the North. At first they worshipped 
the powers of nature. In their belief every object in the 
world had a soul capable of exercising some influence on 
mankind for good or evil. Spirits of the greater or more 
conspicuous objects, as sun, moon, rivers, and mountains, 
they were inclined to propitiate as deities with prayers 
and sacrifices. They thought of a few only of these d ei- 
ties as possessing human form and human character. Such ^ 

a god was supposed to live in his appropriate object as a 
man lives in a house. But a great change came about 
through the influence of the epic poets, who spread the 
belief that all deities were like men, that they differed 
from human beings only in their greater stature and 
strength and in their immortality. They sometimes even 



1 6 The Prehistoric Age 

represented a god as wounded by a man in battle. From 
the poet's point of view, heaven was very near to earth. 

Od. xvii, "Yea, and the gods in the likeness of strangers from far 

^^^ ^' countries put on all manner of shapes, and wander through 

the cities, beholding the violence and the righteousness of 
men." Since the gods were only magnified men, they had 
both good and evil qualities, and the influences of religion 

Ot^. xiii, 2i3f. were both moral and immoral. "Zeus watches over all 
men and punishes the transgressor." "The gods love not 

(3rf. xiv, 83 ff. froward deeds, but reverence justice and the righteous 
acts of men." The religion of the time commanded for- 
giveness of injury, kindliness, and truth. With equal 
readiness, however, the gods taught men to lie and steal 
and kill. But it is encouraging to notice that throughout 
the age the Greeks were making moral progress. 

Hades and To all the Greeks, and especially to the lonians, life 
ysium. ^^g £^jj ^j beauty and joy, while the very thought of death 
was hideous. The realm of Hades was cold, dark, and 
lifeless. The spirit of the dead, set free by burning the 
body, flitted past the streams of Oceanus, past the gates of 
the sun and the land of dreams, to the mead of Asphodel, 

Od. xxiv, where dwell the souls, the phantoms of men outworn. 

TO flF 

There in the realm of Hades, the spirit lived like a 
shadow or dream. None were happy in that under-world, 
and those guilty of great sin on earth suffered various 
torments. Only a few heroes especially favored of the 
gods were supposed by Homer to have gone, without 
dying, to the Elysian plain, "at the end of the world, 
Od. iv, 563 ff. where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor 
yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth 
forth the breeze of the shrill West to blow cool on men." 
Such was the influence of Homer on the religious beliefs 
of the Greeks that his conception of the forms of the gods 



Results 17 

and of the future life retained its hold on their mind till 

the introduction of Christianity. The poems of Homer Hdt. ii, 53. 

were their Bible. 

In the period which we have here reviewed, the Greeks Summary. 
entered their historic home, and began their career as a 
distinct race. When they first came to Greece, they were 
all barbarous; but in course of time those who settled on 
the coasts and islands, stimulated by Asia, became civil- 
ized; they began to live in cities, to enjoy literature, 
art, and other comforts and refinements of life. From 
these beginnings of civilization we shall, in the following 
chapters, trace the development of Greece till, with the 
lapse of centuries, she became the intellectual mistress of 

the world. 

Sources 

The period covered by this chapter is prehistoric : the alphabet, Reading, 
though not wholly unknown, was not used for recording events, 
or even for literary purposes; the Iliad and the Odyssey, for instance, 
were handed down orally from generation to generation. The his- 
torian, accordingly, who wishes to reconstruct the life of this time 
must rely on other material than contemporary documents and writ- 
ten literature. A valuable source for the Tribal Age is Thucydides i, 
2-8. We can speak with certainty of the earliest condition of Greece, 
because parts of the country remained unchanged down to the time of 
Thucydides, and are described by him. For the races of his day which 
had not yet developed beyond the tribal condition, study in Thucydides, 
through the index, the Locrians, the Italians, and the Acarnanians. 
For the Mycenaean Age, the sources are chiefly the materials recently 
excavated on the sites of the Mycenaean cities. These materials are 
described in the modern authorities mentioned below. The sources 
for the Epic Age are the two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey .^ 
composed by the poets of that time. 

Modern Authorities 

The most reliable authority covering the entire period is Holm, 
History of Greece, I, chs. i, ii, viii, xii-xiv. 

(i) The Tribal Age : Holm, I, ch. i ; Fowler, The City- State of 
the Greeks and Romans, ch. ii, 
C 



1 8 The Prehistoric Age 

(2) The Mycenaean Age : Holm, I, ch. viii; Tsountas and Manatt, 
Z'y^*? yJ/y^ifw^aw ^^^-j the best treatment of the subject; P. Gardner, New 
Chapters in Greek History, also excellent; Frazer, Pausanias' Descrip- 
tion of Greece, see Mycence, Tiryns^ etc., in the index; Schliemann's 
\iOt\i'!>, Mycence (1878), Troja (1884), and Tiryns (1885), are a store- 
house of facts, but many of his theories have proved untenable; Mahaffy, 
Survey of Greek Civilization, pp. 22-40; Tarbell, History of Greek Arty 
ch. ii; Diehl, Excursions in Greece. 

(3) The Epic Age : Oman, History of Greece, ch. iii, antiquated; 
Holm, I, chs. xiii, xiv, excellent; Aljbott, History of Greece, I,,ch. v; 
Curtius, History of Greece, bk. I, ch. iv (latter part) ; Timayenis, History 




Vessels and Idols from Mycenae 

of Greece, pt. II, ch.v; also, Greece in the Times of Homer ; Gxote, His^ 
tory of Greece^ II, chs. xx, xxi, thorough treatment; AUcroft and Masom, 
Early Grecian History, ch. iv; Fowler, ch. iii; Jebb, Introduction to 
Homer; Warr, The Greek Epic ; Gladstone, Homer (primer) ; Mahaffy, 
Survey of Greek Civilization, ch. ii ; Social Life in Greece, chs. ii, iii, 
interesting and suggestive books; History of Greek Literature, I, chs. 
iii-v; Lang, Homer and the Epic, ch. i, from the point of view of a 
"literary skirmisher"; Murray, History of Ancient Greek Literature, 
ch. i; Jebb, Greek Literature (primer), ch. ii; Church, Stories from 
Homer ; Engelmann- Anderson, Pictorial Atlas to Homer's Iliad and 
Odyssey, 



Bibliography 19 

(4) Colonization of the ^gean islands and of Asia Minor : Oman, 
ch. vi; Holm, I, ch. xii; Abbott, I, ch. iv; Curtius, bk. I, ch. iv; 
Grote, III, chs. xiii-xv; Timayenis, pt. II, ch. v; Allcroft and Masom, 
ch. vi. 

(5) Geography of Greece : Oman, ch. i; Allcroft and Masom, ch. i; 
Holm, ch. ii, excellent, though brief; Curtius, ch. i, best treatment of the 
subject, though it contains some antiquated theories as to the relation 
of the Greeks to the Italians, and the contrast between the lonians and 
the Dorians; Abbott, I, ch. i. 




"Theseus" 

(F'rom the east pediment of the Parthenon.) 



CHAPTER II 



The found- 
ing of a city. 



Od. vi. 3 ff. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF STATES AND OF LEAGUES (to 
ABOUT 700 B.C.). COLONIAL EXPANSION (750-550 B.C.) 

"The Phgeacians^ of old dwelt in spacious Hypereia; 
near the Cyclopes they dwelt, men exceeding proud, 
who harried them continually, being mightier than they. 
Thence the godlike Nausithous made them depart, and he 
carried them away, and planted them in Scheria, far off from 
men who live by bread. And he drew a wall around the 
town, and builded houses, and made temples for the gods, 
and meted out the fields. Howbeit when he had been 
stricken by fate, and had gone down to the house of 
Hades, Alcinoiis, his son, reigned with wisdom granted 
by the gods." 

Homer, who relates this myth, might have told us much 

^ The poet created this mythical race after the pattern of the lonians, 
among whom he lived; p. 10. 

20 



The City 21 

more about the founding of a city, had he wished to do The organi- 
so. Nausithoiis grouped kindred families into a brother- ^^^i°" ^^^ 

character of 

hood (phratry) ; several of these brotherhoods into a tribe, a city, 
and three or four tribes into a city. This division of 
the city served political, military, and religious purposes. 
The space within his walls was so small and contained sc 
few people that we should call it a village, and the whole 
of his kingdom occupied perhaps no more than the valley 
of some brook. The term "city," the Greek word /^//>, 
applied not merely to the walled town, but included the 
entire kingdom. The Greek state was wholly under the 
city organization and within the city limits; hence we call 
it a city-state to distinguish it from the territorial states of 
modern times. All the citizens of a Greek state regarded 
each other as near kinsmen, the children of a common 
ancestor. Thus in every Ionian city they claimed descent P. 9 ff. 
from Ion through his four sons, the fathers of the four 
tribes to which they' all belonged. Though these remote 
ancestors were mythical, the Greeks looked upon them as 
real persons. Each state had its own religion, a part of 
which was the worship of the common ancestor. The 
Ionian cities, for instance, worshipped Apollo, the divine 
father of Ion; and the people of each town considered 
it impious to admit strangers to their brotherhoods 
and to their religious festivals, for their god loved only 
his fellow-citizens, and looked upon all others as ene- 
mies. 

There were hundreds of these little city-states in Greece Religious 
in Homer's time, perhaps earlier. It was very difficult ^^^s^^^- 
for them to unite in larger states because they were so 
exclusive in religion and because they were separated from 
each other by high mountain ranges. But neighboring 
communities sometimes found it convenient to join to- 



22 States mid Leagues 

gether for commerce and for social intercourse. In such 
a case, they must adopt a common worship and persuade 
themselves that they were all of one kin, for men had 
not yet learned to act together on any other grounds than 
these. The Pan-Ionian League may serve as an illustra- 
tion. Twelve cities of Ionia formed this union for the 
worship of Poseidon, god of the sea, and held their fair 
and festival at his shrine on the promontory of Mycale. 
Their common descent from Ion, though a mere fiction, 
paved the way to this association. But the union did not 
prevent the cities from fighting among themselves, nor did 
it even lead them to a close defensive alliance against 
common enemies. A league of this kind, which was 
mainly for religious, social, and commercial purposes, 
was called by the Greeks an amphictyony, — a " union of 
neighbors." 

The Delian A larger religious league grew up about the shrine of 
eague, Apollo on the island of Delos in the ^gean Sea, and in 

P- 9- the course of time came to include all of the Attic-Ionic 

race. Every community of the league took part in the 
Delian fair and festival held in the springtime, in the 
"Holy Month," when, men believed, Apollo revealed him- 
self to his worshippers. "There in thy honor, Apollo, 
the long-robed lonians assemble with their children and 
their gracious dames. So often as they hold thy festival, 
they celebrate thee, for thy joy, with boxing and dancing 
and song. A man would say that they were strangers to 
death and to old age evermore, who should come on the 
lonians thus gathered; for he should see the goodliness of 
all the people, and should rejoice in his soul, beholding 
the men and the fairly cinctured women, and their swift 
ships, and their great wealth; and besides, that wonder 
of which the fame shall not perish, the maidens of Delos, 



Political Leagues 



23 



handmaidens of Apollo the far-darter. First they hymn Homeric 

Apollo, then Leto and Artemis delighting in arrows; and ^y^^^<^ 

-. r Apollo, Jebb, 

then they smg the praise of heroes of yore and of women, p_ ^3. 
and throw their 
spell over the 
tribes of men." 
It is easy to see 
how festivals like 
this promoted 
commerce, art, 
and kindly feel- 
ing. There were 
similar leagues 
among the Dori- 
ans and ^olians; 
and indeed few, if 
any, Greek cities 
remained apart 
from such associ- 
ations. 

But some re- 
ligious leagues be- 




Political 
leagues. 



Artemis 

(Museum of the Louvre. This statue belongs to the 
came political as Hellenistic Age of Art, which begins with the death of 
Alexander the Great.) 

well. This hap- 
pened when one of the cities grew strong enough to com- 
pel the others to acknowledge her as leader in war. 
The Greeks called such a leadership an hegemony. We 
may take Boeotia as an example of this class of unions. Boeotia. 
" Boeotia is an inland territory, complete and secluded in 
itself, where the superabundant water stagnates in the Curtius, 1, 
depths of the valleys — a land of damp fogs and luxurious P* ^7- 
vegetation on a rich soil." The country was not so thor- 
oughly cut up into narrow valleys as most other parts of 



24 States and Leagues 

Greece, and this made it easier for the communities to 
unite. Among the cities of Boeotia which joined in 
a league for the worship of Athena were Orchomenus, 

//. ix, 381. "where the treasure-houses are stored fullest," a city as 
old as the Mycenaean age, and Thebes "of the seven gates," 
which Amphion and his twin brother Zethus are said in 

Od.xi,26sf. myth to have founded, "and made of it a fenced city, for 
they might not dwell in spacious Thebes unfenced for all 
their valiancy." The huge stones moved into their places 
in the wall, keeping time with the music of Amphion' s 
lyre. Tater myth made Cadmus the founder. As he 
came from Phoenicia in search of his sister Europa whom 
Zeus had stolen away, he was directed to the site of 
Thebes by a cow; and when he had laid out the boun- 
daries of the city, by the instruction of Apollo, he sowed 
the ground with dragon's teeth. From these sprang up 
the men who were to be founders of the aristocratic fami- 
lies of the new city. The poets invented such myths, and 
all accepted them as history. Boeotia means " cattle coun- 
try," and the story of the cow was devised to explain the 
name. 

Leadership These two cities were the greatest in Boeotia; and each 

of Thebes. tried to make herself more powerful by conquering her 
neighbors. In the course of time Thebes outstripped 
Orchomenus in the race for dominion, and became the 
head of the league. The older city, even after it had 
proved inferior in strength, remained a rival for the lead- 
ership; while Thebes tried continually, but in vain, to sub- 
ject the other allied cities to herself. The whole history 
of Boeotia turns on this strife. 

Argoiis. The history of Argolis, which also had a league of cities, 

was somewhat like that of Boeotia. First Tiryns was 

P. 4 ff. leader, then Mycenae, and finally "wheat-bearing" Argos, 



Attica 



25 



which, toward the close of the epic age, had become the 
most -powerful state in Greece. Its king, Pheidon, who 
lived about this time, tried to make his city the head oi 
all Peloponnese. He introduced a system of weights and 
measures into his country, made many improvements, and 
had in all respects a brilliant reign; but when at last he 
was killed in battle, his city began to decline, and lost 
control of some of the towns even of her own country. 

When we come to Attica we find a political advance Attica. 
beyond Boeotia and Argolis. But first let us learn what 
the Athenians thought of the beginning of their state. 




Cecrops and Daughter 

(From the west pediment of the Parthenon.) 

Their first king was Cecrops, a serpent-tailed man, who. Myth of 
not born of parents, had simply sprung from the soil. He ^^^'^op^- 
ruled the country in the fertile valley of the Cephisus, 
with his dwelling on the ^ Acropolis, and called his city 
and kingdom Cecropia, after his own name. In his reign 
the gods divided among themselves the cities of the earth, 
each selecting the one in which he wished for the future 
to receive special honor. Poseidon, who wanted Cecro- 
pia, came to the Acropolis, and, striking it with his trident 



\ 



26 



States and Leagues 



Myth of 
Theseus. 



Thuc. ii, 15. 



Attica be- 
comes a 
state. 



in a certain spot, caused a spring of salt water to bubble 
up. In this way he hoped to make the city his own. But 
Athena then planted an olive tree by the spring and thus 
laid claim to the city for herself. When strife arose there- 
upon between the two deities for the possession of the 
place, Zeus appointed the twelve gods jurors to try the 
case, and they, on the testimony of Cecrops, who saw 
Athena plant the tree, assigned the city to her. She 
named it Athens and its people Athenians after herself, 
and became its protecting goddess, while all the Athe- 
nians henceforth regarded themselves as her chosen fellow- 
citizens. Up to this time the people of Attica had lived 
in unwalled villages, but Cecrops gathered them into twelve 
cities for protection against pirates and hostile neighbors; 
and though these little states had their own kings, Cecrops 
was lord of them all. 

Some years afterward Theseus, a foreigner, became 
king of Athens. He was a valiant hero, whose adventures 
with savage beasts and monsters Plutarch relates in his 
Life of Theseus. " He, being a powerful as well as a wise 
ruler, among various improvements, dissolved the councils 
and separate governments, and united all the inhabitants 
of Attica into the present city, establishing one council 
and town-hall. They continued to live on their own 
lands, but he compelled them to resort to Athens as the 
seat of government, and henceforth they were all inscribed 
on the roll of her citizens. A great city thus arose which 
was handed down by Theseus to his descendants.*' 

Though it is not likely that any king of Attica was 
named Cecrops or Theseus, yet there is some truth in 
these stories. The Acropolis of Athens was fitted by na- 
ture to be the stronghold of Attica, to which the people all 
looked for protection in time of danger. Athena from her 



Lacedcemon 27 

throne on the rock ruled her country, not so much by mili- 
tary strength as by the moral force of law; and so the 
kings who lived on the Acropolis, partly by fighting, but 
in the main by persuasion, united the petty kingdoms of 
Attica in one large state. All the Atticans in the course 
of time became Athenians, and the whole country was taken 
into the limits and into the organization of Athens. 
Thebes and Argos did not accomplish so much for the Cf. p. 21. 
countries over which they ruled, for neither did the Boeo- 
tians become Thebans, nor did the people of Argolis 
become Argives. 

Attica is for the most part a rugged country, whose thin Character of 
soil, fit only for grazing, compelled her people to make '^^*^^^' 
the best of the little they had. But the air of the coun- 
try is remarkably clear and the landscapes are beautiful, 
tempting the imagination. All the Greeks indeed were 
near the sea, but Attica was especially favored by a long 
coast line which invited to commerce. These surround- 
ings helped to make the Athenians enterprising and intelli- 
gent, to refine their tastes, and awaken in them a love 
for the beautiful. Athens, though slow in taking her 
place among the states of Greece, became in the end 
the foremost city of the world in civilization. 

Sparta, or Lacedaemon, "low-lying among the caverned Sparta, Od. 
hills," became the head of a larger state than Athens, but ^^' ^• 
of a different kind. The story of her beginning, too, is a 
myth. Heracles, son of Zeus, was a mightier and more 
famous hero even than Theseus, and was heir to the throne 
of Argos, a city which claimed the right to rule all Pelo- 
ponnese. But Hera, through jealousy of her husband, 
Zeus, kept the hero from his inheritance, and placed him 
in bondage to his cowardly cousin, Eurystheus, whom she 
by trickery made king of Argos, Eurystheus forced him 



/ 



28 



States and Leagues 



Myth of to spend his life in fighting with monsters and in doing 

Heracles and other hard tasks, and would not cease troubling his sons 

of the Dorian 

invasion. even after their father's death. But some of the Hera- 
cleidae, or descendants of Heracles, became rulers of the 
Dorians, and led them in an invasion of Peloponnese. 
These Dorians, according to myth, lived for a time in 
Thessaly, and came thence into the little m.ountainous 
country of Doris in central Greece. There the Hera- 
cleidse became their chiefs, and leading them thence into 
Peloponnese, conquered and settled Argolis, Laconia, and 
Messenia. In this way these leaders regained what their 
ancestor, Heracles, had lost. This myth probably grew 
up as follows. The early poets and historians noticed 
that Homer did not mention Dorians in Peloponnese, and 
concluded therefore that they must have come in after 
Homer's time; and as they wished also to explain how 
Argolis, Laconia, and Messenia came to be ruled by 
Heracleid kings, they found it easy to imagine them the 
leaders of the Dorians on their supposed invasion. The 
truth seems to be that the Dorians inhabited these three 
countries from the earliest times, but were not so named 
till after Homer. 

The contrast between Athens and Sparta rests on the 
difference between a hill and a plain. The valley of the 
Eurotas, in which Sparta lies, is one of the most fertile in 
Greece, and the farmers who occupied it became very 
wealthy. But they had to fight hard to protect their prop- 
erty from the men of the high mountains on both sides, 
and this led them to form a strong army. Fortunately, 
too, they invented, or at least were the first of the Greeks 
to use, bronze armor, which nearly covered them from 
head to foot, and which made it possible for them to con- 
quer, and hold in subjection, the mountaineers. The farm- 



Character of 

Lacedaemon. 



Summary 29 

ers then left their work, and, gathering into the city of 
Sparta, which they kept for themselves alone, passed all 
their time in military drill, while they forced the con- 
quered to till their fields for them. The city of Sparta 
thus united all Laconia into one strong state, called Lace- 
daemon, which it held together by military force. Let us 
note the difference between Attica and Laconia: in the 
former the country had as many rights as the city, and 
was in fact taken into the city organization; in the latter 
the country remained subject to the city. All Atticans 
became Athenians, but the country people of Laconia 
were simply Lacedaemonians, while the inhabitants of the 
governing city had the additional name of Spartans. 

About the year 700 b.c, Argos was still the leading state Political 
in Peloponnese, though Lacedaemon was rapidly growing condition of 

Greece, 

in power. Corinth, near the Isthmus, was soon to become 700 b.c. 
influential through her navy, while Sicyon, another com- 
mercial city farther west, acknowledged the Argive king 
as her lord. In central Greece, Thebes and Athens 
governed each a large country, but lack of unity made 
them both weak in war. Athens, indeed, was hardly a 
match at this time for little Megara on the Isthmus. 
West of Boeotia, Delphi, the seat of Apollo's chief shrine, 
was the centre of a religious league, but had as yet no 
political influence. The interior and western parts of 
continental Greece were still occupied by barbarous races. 
In Thessaly four large tribes joined in a union, which 
soon became a great power, and interfered in the affairs 
of central Greece. This was the political condition of 
the Greek peninsula; on the islands and in Asia Minor, 
where civilization was highest, there were religious leagues 
but no large states. \ 

Thus far we have been studying the Greeks in their 



30 Colonial Expansion 

Colonization, mother country on the continent, and in their earliest colo- 

750-550 B.C. j^i^g ^^ ^^ islands and east coast of the ^gean Sea. But 

as early as 750 B.C. they began to send out new colonies 

in various directions. First we shall consider those which 

were planted in Italy and Sicily. 

Italy and Italy is farther than Asia Minor from continental 

Sicily. Greece, and the Ionian Sea is not, like the ^gean, filled 

with islands; yet the Greeks from the Epeirot coast could 

look in clear weather across the narrowest part of the sea 

to the Italian shore. First the explorers went forth; "and 

we came," says one of these in the Odyssey ^ "to the land 

of the Cyclopes, a froward and lawless folk, who, trusting 

to the deathless gods, plant not aught with their hands, 

The story of neither plough : but, behold, all these things spring for 

an explorer them in plenty, unsown and untilled, wheat, and barley, 

in the West. . , • , , , , , . . 

and vines, which bear great clusters of the juicy grape, 
and the rain of Zeus gives them increa'se. These have 
Od. ix. 106 ff. neither gatherings for council nor oracles of law, but they 
dwell in hollow caves on the crests of high hills, and each 
one utters the law to his children and his wives, and they 
reck not one of another. 

" Now there is a waste isle stretching without the harbor 
of the land of the Cyclopes, neither nigh at hand nor yet 
afar off, a woodland isle, wherein are wild goats unnum- 
bered, for no path of men scares them, nor do hunters 
resort thither who suffer hardships in the wood, as they 
range the mountain crests. Moreover, it is possessed 
neither by flocks nor by ploughed lands, but the soil lies 
unsown evermore and untilled, desolate of men, and feeds 
the bleating goats. For the Cyclopes have by them no 
ships with vermilion cheek, nor yet are there shipwrights 
in this land, who might fashion decked barques, by means 
of which . . . they might have made of their isle a goodly 



Early Explorers 31 

settlement. Yea, it is in no wise a sorry land, but would 
bear all things in their season; for therein are soft water- 
meadows by the shores of the gray salt sea, and there the 
vines know no decay, and the land is level to plough; 
thence might they reap a crop exceeding deep in due 
season, for verily there is fatness beneath the soil. Also 
there is a fair haven, where is no need of moorings, either 
to cast anchor or to fasten hawsers, but men may run the 
ship on the beach, and tarry until such time as the sailors 
are minded to be gone, and favorable breezes blow. Now 
at the head of the harbor is a well of bright water issuing 
from a cave, and round it are poplars growing. Thither 
we sailed, and some god guided us through the night, for 
it was dark and there was no light to see, a mist lying 
deep about the ships, nor did the moon show her light 
from heaven, but was shut in with clouds. No man then 
beheld that island, neither saw we the long waves rolling 
to the beach, till we had run our decked ships ashore. 
And when our ships were beached, we took down all their 
sails, and ourselves, too, stepped forth upon the strand of 
the sea, and there we fell into sound sleep and waited for 
the bright Dawn. 

" So soon as early Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered, 
in wonder at the island we roamed over the length thereof; 
and the Nymphs, the daughters of Zeus, lord of the aegis, 
started the wild goats of the hills, that my company might 
have wherewith to sup. Anon we took to us our curved 
bows from out the ships, and long spears, and, arrayed in 
three bands, we began shooting at the goats; and the god 
soon gave us game in plenty." 

Such tales explorers told on their return from Sicily and Achaean 
Italy ; and thousands who heard them were eager to go as ^° °"^^^' 
colonists to the newly discovered country. The Achaeans, 



32 



Colonial Expansion 



Locrian 
colonies. 



Zaleucus, 
660 B.C. 



Commercial 
cities begin 
to colonize. 



who lived on the coast of northern Peloponnese, a Dorian 
race related to the Argives, were among the first Greeks to 
settle Italy. Their earliest colonies in the instep of the 
peninsula became the nucleus of many prosperous settle- 
ments. Among these were Sybaris, for two centuries the 
wealthiest and most luxurious Greek city in Italy, and 
Croton, famous for its physicians and athletes. 

Then the Locrians from central Greece, across the Co- 
rinthian Gulf from Achaea, occupied the section of Italy 
south of the Achaean domain. Their chief colony was 
Locri, famous for its great lawgiver, Zaleucus. He pre- 
tended to receive laws from Athena in dreams, and the 
city requested him to write them out for public use. 
He accordingly drew up a code of laws which he claimed 
to be divine, but which were probably little different from 
the Locrian customs already existing. Early law is severe, 
and the code of Zaleucus was noted for its harshness : " an 
eye for an eye " expresses its character. Cases arising 
under his laws were tried before the chief magistrate of 
Locri, from whom an appeal was allowed to the assembly 
of the "Thousand." Magistrate and appellant appeared 
before this assembly each with his neck in a noose, and 
the one who failed to sustain his cause was executed on 
the spot. And as the proposer of a new law must likewise 
wear the noose, Locri retained its old laws and primitive 
manners unchanged for several centuries. The code of 
Zaleucus was, so far as we know, the earliest body of 
written laws among the Europeans; it was more than two 
centuries earlier than the Roman code. 

The Achaeans and Locrians in the mother country had 
as yet neither cities nor commerce, but lived in villages 
in the old-fashioned way, and passed their time in farming 
and in tending their herds. So, too, their colonists in 



Chalets 



33 



Italy, though they founded cities, still clung in the main 
to the occupations of their fathers, and paid little atten- 
tion to traffic. But we hear of commercial cities sending 
out colonies with a view to extending their trade. The 




Chalcis 

first to do so was Chalcis, an Ionian city of Euboea. Its Chalcis 
situation was favorable for manufacturing, as there were ^"^ Cumae. 
copper and iron mines in the neighboring mountains and 
in the strait near by abounded the species of fish which 
yielded the purple for dyeing. The merchants of this 
city shipped these products to the parts of Greece where 
they were needed, and desired in addition to found trad- 
ing stations among foreigners in distant lands. To carry 
out this idea, their city planted many settlements on the 
coasts of Italy and Sicily, some of which became great 
centres of traffic. One of the most important in Italy was 
Cumae, near the Bay of Naples, a colony which we may 

D 



34 



Colonial Expansion 



Sparta and 
Tarentum. 



About 
700 B.C. 



Corinth. 



Syracuse. 



Style Rome's first schoolmistress, as she taught the Romans 
the alphabet and other rudiments of culture. 

Although the Spartans, who were the chief Dorian com- 
munity of continental Greece, were noted for their frugal 
living, their old-fashioned habits, and their lack of enter- 
prise, they founded one early settlement in Italy, at Taren- 
tum, on the best harbor of the east coast. Because of its 
situation, this colony became renowned for commerce, 
wealth, and refinement. No two Greek cities could be 
more unlike than Sparta and Tarentum. From this fact 
we may infer that the character of a community depended 
more upon its situation than upon the race to which it 
belonged. Most of the Dorians in old Greece had fewer 
opportunities than the lonians for commerce and in- 
dustry, and so were mainly agricultural; but wherever 
they enjoyed the same advantages of situation, — and this 
was especially the case with the western colonies, — they 
showed equal capacity for improvement. 

In trade and in colonization, Dorian Corinth followed 
for a time in the path marked out by Chalcis, but became 
in the end a greater city because her situation was more 
favorable. Her lofty citadel commanded the Isthmus, 
and by means of her three harbors, two on the Saronic Gulf 
and one on the Corinthian, she could trade equally well 
with the East and with the West. She excelled in dyeing 
and weaving, in working metals, and in making fine terra- 
cotta wares. She was also among the first cities to build 
triremes, — long vessels with three banks of oars, the battle- 
ships of classic history, — and with her navy she tried to 
put an end to piracy, once an honorable occupation, but 
now fallen into disgrace. 

Corinth's most famous colony was Syracuse, on the east 
coast of Sicily in Ortygia, possibly the isle which Homer 



Sicily 3 5 

describes in the passage quoted above. In time it out- 
grew the island, and spread over the adjoining mainland 
till it became the largest city in Greece, while its " Great 
Harbor " could shelter the navies of the world. " Great 
city of Syracuse, precinct of warrior Ares, of iron-armed Find. />/>%. ii 
men and steeds, the nursing place divine," was at once the 
Athens and Sparta of the West, as renowned for wealth and 
culture as for strength in war. 

Next to Syracuse in importance among the Dorian col- Acragas. 
onies of Sicily was Acragas, the Latin Agrigentum. Its 
founders, "after long toils bravely borne, took by a river's Pind. 
side a sacred dwelling-place, and became the eye of Sicily, ^^y^^^P- "• 
and a life of good luck clave to them, bringing them wealth 
and honor to crown their inborn worth." They built their 
city on a hill two miles from the coast, and adorned it 
with temples, colonnades, and beautiful dwellings, while 
all about it they planted vineyards and olive orchards. 

Sicily, because of its wonderful fertility, soon excelled 
the mother country in wealth. Its cities were mostly on 
the coast, and for this reason Pindar calls them a "gor- 
geous crown of citadels," which nearly surrounded "teem- Nem.'x. 
ing Sicily . . . best land in the fruitful earth." The 
Greeks were prevented from completing the circuit of 
colonies by Phoenicians from Carthage, who occupied the 
west end of the island. The lonians were for the most 
part in the north of the island, and the Dorians in the 
south. The latter had, on the whole, the better situation, 
and so were the more prosperous. This is another illus- / 

tration of the truth that, among the Greeks, not race so 
much as surroundings made character. 

The colonization of the West began as early as 750 B.C. Magna 
and continued a century or more. The territory occupied ^raecia and 

^ . ^ Western 

by the Greeks in Italy is called Magna Grsecia, while the Greece. 



36 



Colonial Expansion 



Cf. p. 9 ff- 



Chalcidice. 

About 
750 B.C. 



lonians. 



Colonies on 
the Helles- 
pont and on 
the Black 
Sea. 



term " Western Greece " includes their settlements in both 
Italy and Sicily. Western Greece was related to the 
mother country somewhat as America now is to Europe. 
It remained politically distinct, but always kept in the 
closest commercial and intellectual contact. When, too, 
the lonians of Asia Minor ceased to produce literature, 
art, and useful ideas and inventions, the Western Greeks, 
as the heirs of their genius, continued the work of build- 
ing European civilization. 

Chalcis was the first city to send colonies northward as 
well as westward. On the northwest coast of the ^gean, 
colonists found a broad peninsula with three arms reaching 
far into the sea. It is so rugged and has so long a coast 
line that the Greeks who went there to live found it very 
homelike. Men swarmed to that region to work the cop- 
per, silver, and gold mines, and to cut the timber for 
shipbuilding; and as most of them came from Chalcis, 
they named their new home Chalcidice. Corinth followed 
Chalcis in this direction, also, and founded Potidaea, 
which became the chief commercial city in that country. 

Meantime the lonians, who were the earliest mariners 
of Greece, began to found colonies; the city which led 
them in this enterprise was Miletus. It had an excellent 
harbor, and its situation at the mouth of the Maeander 
enabled it to trade with wealthy Lydia in the interior. 
Now while some of the Greeks were working the mines 
of Chalcidice, others were sailing into the Hellespont to 
fish and to plant settlements along its shores. Foremost 
among these were the Milesians, who founded more colo- 
nies there than any of the other Greeks. They were the 
first, also, to push on through the strait of Bosporus and 
to explore and settle the coasts of the Black Sea. This 
sea, so unlike the ^gean, appeared strange to the Greeks, 



The Hellespont 37 

with its waters unbroken by islands, its coasts indented by 
few bays, and the comparatively severe climate of its 
northern shore; yet the Milesians superstitiously tried to 
change its nature and to make it Hellenic by calling it the 
Euxine, the "Hospitable Sea." Its southern coast yielded 
silver, copper, iron, and timber; its northern coast, cattle 
and grain; the sea itself, fish. The mission of the coun- 
try about the Black Sea was to supply the populous dis- 
tricts of the ^gean with raw products; it had no share in 
the intellectual and artistic development of Greece. 

One of the most important of the colonizing cities of Megara 
Greece was Megara, near the Isthmus of Corinth. The little ^"^ 

Byzantium 

country belonging to it was for the most part fit only for 
pasturing sheep, and the Megarians supported themselves 
by making coarse woollens and heavy works in pottery for 
exportation. With a harbor on each side of the Isthmus, 
they seemed unusually well equipped for commerce; and 
their city might have become a great centre of trade, had 
it not been for the rise of Corinth on one side and of 
Athens on the other. Thus cooped up between two power- 
ful neighbors, Megara soon began to feel herself cramped 
both in her commerce and«in her political freedom. But 
though of little account among the powers of Greece, she 
was great in her colonies, the most celebrated of which 
was Byzantium at the entrance to the Bosporus. It re- 
mained a great commercial city throughout Grecian his- 
tory; and when the days of Hellenic freedom were long 
past, it became, under the name of Constantinople, the 
seat of the Roman Empire. 

All the colonies on the shores of the ^gean and in the The heart 
country of the Hellespont, extending as far as Byzantium, ^^^ "^^"^" 
entered at once into the political and intellectual life of Hellas. 
Greece. The circle of the ^gean coasts and islands was 



38 ' » Colonial Expansion 

indeed the heart of Hellas, in which her history centred. 
The more remote colonies, on the other hand, as those in 
Western Greece and about the Black Sea, were, so to speak, 
her arms by which she came into contact with the world, 
and supplied herself with material and mental food. 
Cyprus and From the point of view just set forth, no settlements 
Egypt. ^gj.g ijiore important than those in the eastern extremity 

of the Mediterranean. Cyprus had been colonized by the 
Greeks as early perhaps as looo B.C. and served, while it 
remained free, as a convenient station for merchant ships 
passing to and fro between Greece and the Orient. But 
it became subject first to Assyria and afterwards to Egypt, 
and the Greeks were for a time excluded almost wholly 
from the ports of the East. Then Psammetichus, ruler of 
a little province on the Nile, with the help of Ionian and 
Carian mercenaries, became king of all Egypt, and made 
himself independent of Assyria. As he saw that the 
Greeks would be useful to him in various ways, he per- 
mitted them to come into his country and to found the 
trading station, Naucratis, at one of the mouths of the 
Nile. In it all the great commercial cities of Greece 
had their warehouses, chartered by the Egyptian govern- 
ment. The kings of the land sent youths to Naucratis to 
learn the Hellenic tongue, and began to form alliances 
with Greek states. Thus Egypt, with its wealth and 
knowledge, was opened to the Greeks, and fabulous ac- 
counts of this wonderful country found their way into 
Od. iv, 229 ff. Greek poetry : " There earth, the grain giver, yields herbs 
in greatest plenty, many which are healing in the cup and 
many baneful. There each man is a leech skilled beyond 
all human kind." Many Greeks, who were eager for 
knowledge and had the leisure and the means of travel- 
ling, visited Egypt to see the strange old country and to 



O7'ganizatio7i of a Colony 39 

learn wisdom from its priests. They brought home a few 
valuable facts about surveying, the movements of stars, 
and the recording of events, and with the help of this 
little treasure of truths their own bright minds created the 
first real science. 

When a city planned to send out a colony, it was cus- Organizaticn 
tomary first to ask the advice and consent of the Delphic °f^co^°"y- 
Apollo. Having obtained this, it appointed some noble 
as "founder," who was to lead the enterprise, to distribute 
the lands among the settlers, and to arrange the govern- 
ment. Generally the mother city permitted any who cf. Thuc. i, 
wished from neighboring communities to join the expe- ^4 *• 
dition, and all did so who loved adventure, or wanted bet- 
ter opportunities for trading or farming, or felt oppressed 
by the home government. As those who took part in the 
colony were, when they first came together, simply an p. 20 f. 
unorganized crowd of individuals, the founder had to 
group them in brotherhoods and tribes, and to decide 
what rights each person should have in the state. He 
was careful to establish a government and a religion like 
those of the mother city. In this connection, it is well 
to notice that every Greek city had in its town-hall a 
sacred hearth on which it always kept fire burning. This 
hearth was the religious centre of the community, an altar 
on which the divine founder and ancestor received his 
sacrifices. It was customary for colcfnists to carry with 
them sacred fire from the hearth of the mother city with 
which to kindle the public hearth of the new settlement, 
that the religious life of the old community might continue 
uninterrupted in the new, and that those who went forth to 
found homes in a strange country might not for a moment 
be deprived of divine protection. 

The great period of colonization which began about 



40 Colonial Expansion 

Greece and 750 B.C. came to an end two centuries later. The Greeks 
the Greeks. -^^ ^^^ \va\^ had spread over a large part of the known 
ancient world, as the western Europeans have made their 
home in every part of the modern. The Greeks were then 
all that western Europeans now are, — representatives and 
teachers of the highest existing civilization, carrying their 
culture everywhere, and everywhere gaining the advantage 
over others by means of their own superior vitality and 
intelligence. Greece, or Hellas, included all their settle- 
ments on the shores of the Mediterranean and its tributa- 
ries, from Egypt and Cilicia to the "Pillars of Heracles," ^ 
Hdt. viii, 144. and from south Russia to the Libyan desert. They were 
not united under a single government, but were one in 
blood, one in speech and manners, one in religion. 

» 
Sources 

The beginnings of states and of leagues belong to the prehistoric 
period. Our knowledge of this subject is mainly inference from the 
structure of states and of leagues as we find them in later time. 
About 700 B.C. men began to use the alphabet for recording con- 
temporary events and for writing literature, — hence we say that the 
historic period began at this time. For colonization our chief source 
is Strabo; for the settlements in Italy and Sicily, Thuc. vi, 2-5. 

Modern Authorities on Colonization 

Oman, History of Greece, ch. ix; Holm, History of Greece, I, ch. xxi; 
Abbott, History of Greece, I, ch. xi; Curtius, History of Greece, I, 
bk. II, ch.iii; Grote, History of Greece, III, chs. xxii, xxiii; IV, chs. 
xxvi, xxvii; Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. ii, ch. v; Allcroft and 
Masom, Early Greciatt History, ch. vi; Cox, Greeks and Persians, 
ch. vi, p. 26 ff; Freeman, Story of Sicily, chs. ii, iv; Greenidge, Hand- 
book of Greek Constitutiojial Histojy, ch. iii; Cunningham, JVestern 
Civilization in its Economic Aspects, bk. II, ch. I 

^ Strait of Gibraltar. 



n 




The Areopagus 

(A Group of Excavators in the Foreground.) 



CHAPTER III 



ATHENS AND SPARTA TO THE TIME OF SOLON: KING- 
SHIP, ARISTOCRACY, AND TIMOCRACY (750-594 B.C.) 

We are told in myth that the Dorians once invaded Athens. 
Attica while Codrus, the "Glorious," was king of the 
country. Word came to him from Apollo at Delphi that Myth of 
the army whose leader should be killed by the enemy ^°^''"^- 
would be victorious in the war. Thereupon he laid aside 
his royal robe, and, dressing himself like a shepherd, went 
into the Dorian camp. There he intentionally provoked 
a quarrel and was slain without being known, thus bring- 

41 



42 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Decennial 

kings, 

753 B.C. (?) 

Cf. p. 15. 

Arist. Ath. 
Const. 3. 



713 B.C. (?) 



Annual offi- 
ces, 683 B.C. 

P. 13. 



ing eternal glory to himself and victory to his country. 
The Athenians out of gratitude for his heroic self-sacrifice 
decreed that his son, Medon, should reign in his stead; 
and after Medon his descendants, the Medontidse, were 
kings of Athens for many generations.^ 

The truth in this myth is, that the Medontidae, who were 
the last royal family of Athens, after inventing Medon to 
explain their family name, made up the story of Codrus 
to enable them to claim the throne. They had been 
struggling hopelessly with the council of nobles, which 
wanted to take their power from them. It began its 
attack upon them by decreeing that the king should reign 
henceforth for a period of only ten years, whereas before 
this he had held office for life. This act must have made 
the Medontidae feel that they were to have merely the 
name of ruling, while their enemies, the great nobles in 
the council, were to exercise the real authority. Some 
years later the council, alleging that the Medontidae were 
incapable of commanding the army, instituted the office 
of polemarch, or "leader in war," and filled it from its 
own number. Without the army the Medontidae were 
helpless and soon lost even the title of king, as this office, 
too, was thrown open to the councillors. Still later a new 
magistrate, the Archon, was appointed to care for widows, 
orphans, and heiresses. 

While the offices were increasing in number, the council 
was likewise growing large. At first only a few great 
nobles, chiefly the leaders of tribes, composed this body, 
but in the course of time all the noble families secured 



1 This is an earlier version of the story; cf. Plato, Symposium, 208 D. 
The later form of the myth which makes Codrus the last king of Athens 
is a great perversion of history. All of the kings of Athens before the 
Medontidae are mythical. 



Knightly Aristocracy 43 

seats in it and handed them down from father to son. As 

all the councillors wanted office, and as a man was likely to 

abuse his power if he held it long, the council decreed 

that the offices should be annual, and that no one should 

be reelected till all who were qualified had served their 

turn. At the same time, or somewhat later, it instituted Thesmothe- 

a board of six legislators to formulate and record the laws, ^^' ' ^^^^^" 

° lators." 

which up to this time had been unwritten, to be judges in 

certain civil cases, and to have charge of all public docu- 
ments. The Archon, who had come to be the head of the 
state, the king, now only a priest and judge, the pole- 
march, and the "legislators," we shall henceforth call the The nine 
"ninearchons."! zx^'^ons. 

The councillors filled these offices by turns, and enjoyed 
all the powers of government. When they called the 
assembly together, they admitted only their kinsmen, who, 
like themselves, were nobles. Every noble had to furnish 
at his own expense a horse and arms for cavalry service. 
At the time of which we are speaking, Athens had no good 
infantry, for all who were not knights served merely as 
light-armed troops. The government of Athens at this Knightly 
time we may call a knightly aristocracy or oligarchy, as ^"^ ocracy, 
only the knights had a share in it. This form of govern- 650 e.g. 
ment lasted about a century. 

All the knights were large landowners, but commerce Growth of 

enriched many commoners, who strove for a share in the ^^^^" 

"^ armed 

government. The poor, who were greatly oppressed by infantry. 
the aristocrats, joined the new men of wealth in their 

1 The word " archon " has three meanings : (i) officer or magistrate 
in general; (2) any one of the special magistrates, at Athens who 
formed the college of "the nine archons"; (3) the head of this col- 
lege. In this book the word will be used only in its second and third 
meanings, and the latter will be indicated by capitalization. 



44 Athens and Sparta to the Tiine of Solon 

attacks on the old nobility. It worked to the advantage 
of the commons that Athens was continually at war with 
her neighbors; for the government, to increase its military 
strength, required all who could to equip themselves with 
full armor for heavy infantry service, such as Sparta al- 
P. 28f. ready had; and these heavy-armed soldiers soon forced 

About the knights to admit them to the assembly and to give 

650 B.C. them a voice in the election of archons. They also found 

representation in a new council of Four Hundred and 
One, while the old aristocratic council was to be made 
up of ex-archons. To secure a better local administra- 
tion, the authorities divided Attica into four regions, 
named after the four tribes, and subdivided each region 
into twelve townships.-^ Then, on the basis of this local 
Local organi- organization, they took a census of the citizens, and ar- 
zation. ranged them with reference to the amount of their landed 

property in the following classes: (i) the "five-hundred- 
bushel-men," an especially wealthy class of knights; (2) the 
The census, knights, comprising all who had enough property to enable 
them to serve in the cavalry; (3) the "heavy-armed," who 
had means with which to equip themselves with full armor 
for service on foot; and (4) the thetes, or "poor," who were 
free from military service and from all other public bur- 
dens.^ This classification was for military objects and for 
taxation, though direct taxes were rarely levied. The 
three higher classes could attend the assembly and vote, 

1 Naucraries. 

2 The names of the three higher classes taken directly from the 
Greek are (i) pentacosiomedinini, (2) hippeis, and (3) zeugita. 
The name of the third class seems to mean the " yoked men," i.e. the 
men who stood together in the phalanx or close line of battle. The 
traditional derivation from the Greek word which means yoke of 
work animals, implying the possession of such a pair, is an awkward 
guess. 



Tiniocracy 45 

while the thetes had no share in the government. Thus 

the knightly aristocracy had given way to the government Timocracy 

of the heavy-armed infantry. The latter was a form of ^^ the heavy. 

■^ ^ armed in- 

timocracy, that is, the rule of those who possessed a fantry, about 
definite amount of property. It lasted about half a ^5o-S94 e.g. 
century. 

While these changes were taking place, the country was Civil strife. 
full of confusion and strife. The thetes, who were for the 
most part in slavery to the rich, threatened to rebel against 
their lords; the shepherds and peasants of the Hills in 
north Attica hated the wealthier men of the Plain about 
Athens, just as the Highland and Lowland Scots used to 
hate each other; both Plain and Hills were hostile to the 
traders and fishermen of the Shore; and the contention 
between these local factions was continually breaking out 
into civil war. In addition to these troubles, the great 
families were actually fighting with each other for the 
possession of the offices, and as the son inherited the 
feuds of his father, no one could hope for an end of 
the turmoil. The state was in fact drifting into an- 
archy. 

There was at this time in Attica an ambitious young Cyion's 
man named Cylon, who belonged to one of the noblest ^°o^^'^^J^Jn 
and most powerful families of the state, and who had 
greatly distinguished himself by winning a victory in the 
Olympic games. Taking advantage of the weakness of his 
country, he planned to usurp the government and make 
himself tyrant. His father-in-law, Theagenes, tyrant of 
Megara, encouraged him in his scheme and lent him a 
force of mercenaries. With the help of these soldiers and 
of a band of friends from the nobility, he seized the 
Acropolis. But the country folk in great numbers put on 
their heavy armor and besieged him in the citadel. When 



46 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Thuc. i, 126 ; 
Plut. Solofi. 



P. 194. 



Revealed 
law. 



their provisions were exhausted, Cylon and his brother 
stole through the besieging lines; their starving followers 
when forced to surrender flocked for protection about 
Athena's altar on the Acropolis. Hereupon the chiefs 
of the townships promised these suppliants their lives if 
they would submit to trial. They agreed; yet not having 
full confidence in the promise, they tied a thread to 
Athena's image and, holding one end of it, went down 
to the tribunal. But when they came near the shrine of 
the Furies, the thread by which the goddess gave them her 
protection broke; and then the Archon Megacles and his 
followers stoned and butchered them, permitting only a 
few to escape. Probably a feud between the family of 
Cylon and that of Megacles led to this impious massacre. 
The Alcmeonidae, to whom Megacles belonged, were the 
mightiest family in Attica. The state appears to have 
been powerless to bring them to trial either for murder 
or for violating the right of suppliants, but the curse of 
impiety rested upon the whole family for two centuries or 
more.-^ There was need of laws and courts for the sup- 
pression of such feuds. 

It was a common belief throughout Greece that the king 
had in more ancient time received his laws directly from 
Zeus. As revelations of the divine will were now rare and 
laws were no longer given when needed, those which had 
come down from heaven of old must be carefully pre- 
served. The nobles were un.villing to publish these laws, 
as they did not wish the commons to become acquainted 
with them. By keeping them secret the nobles had ruled 
thus far in their own interest; the magistrates decided 



^ According to the ancient Greek conception a. man brought a curse 
upon himself and his family for all time by mistreating a suppliant, — 
one who took refuge at an altar or in any sacred place. 



Draco 47 

cases in favor of those of their own rank or of those who 
could pay the highest fee. Men were growing rich through 
injustice; and though the great lords were often at strife 
with each other, they agreed in insulting and oppressing 
the lower class. They filled all the priesthoods, and the 
revenues for the support of these gave them fat livings. 
They plundered the public treasury, and in their greed for 
wealth they spared neither the sacred nor the profane.-^ 
Naturally the commons resisted this oppression, and de- 
manded to know the laws by which they were judged. 
The nobles yielded, and in 621 b.c. the citizens elected 
Draco "legislator," with full power to write out a code for 
the state. 

His laws of homicide are of chief interest because the Draco, the 
Athenians retained them unchanged to the end of their 
history. Before Draco, a man who killed another in self- His laws of 
defence, or for any other good reason, was compelled, like 
the wilful murderer, to go into exile or satisfy the kinsmen 
of the slain by paying them a sum of money; otherwise, 
they would kill him in revenge. But Draco insisted that 
the motive of the slayer should be taken into account. He 
assigned a case to its appropriate court, and fixed the pen- 
alty, thus putting an end to the blood feud. Wilful mur- 
der was tried according to his code, on the Areopagus, a 
hill within the city which was sacred to the Furies, and 
the penalty, in case of conviction, was death with the con- 
fiscation of property. Accidental homicide was tried in 
the Palladium, Athena's shrine in Phalerum on the coast. 
A man convicted by this court need only go into exile for 
a short season. Cases of justifiable homicide were tried 
at the Delphinium, a shrine of Apollo outside the city. 

1 Solon, who lived in these times, tells this in his poems; cf. 
Hesiod, Works and Days^ 221, 2bi^. 



48 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Character of 
his laws. 



Ci. p. 32. 

Demosth. 
xxiii, 70. 



Rise of 
skilled indus- 
try and 
commerce. 
Ionia. 
iEgina. 



The act, if proved, demanded no penalty, but merely a 
religious purification. The old aristocratic council sat on 
the Areopagus for the trial of wilful murder; hence the 
name, the "Council of the Areopagus." A court of fifty- 
one elders sat in the other two places. Both courts were 
under the presidency of the king (archon). 

Draco's laws of homicide were humane, since they graded 
penalties according to degree of guilt. They tended also 
to prevent homicide by giving to the courts full power to 
deal with the subject. Theft of vegetables was punishable 
with death. The poor of Attica were always hungry in 
those times, and the stealing of food was a crying evil. 
Although the penalty for this offence was too severe, 
Draco's laws were, on the whole, as mild as the age would 
permit. " Whoever made them originally, whether heroes 
or gods, did not oppress the unfortunate, but alleviated 
humanely their miseries so far as they could with right." 
The Athenians in after time held Draco in great rever- 
ence. It is even probable that apart from his laws of 
homicide he made little change in existing customs, so 
that he cannot be held wholly responsible for the harsh 
features of his code. 

When he had engraved his laws on wooden tablets he 
handed them over to the Council of the Areopagus for safe 
keeping; and thereafter, if a judge gave an unlawful deci- 
sion, the injured party could appeal to the council for 
redress. 

In the Epic Age the Greeks had been simply farmers 
and herdsmen without manufactures, commerce, or money. 
But in Draco's time a great change was coming over all 
the coast and island cities of Greece. -First the lonians 
began to manufacture, to trade, and to coin money, ^gina 
was the first commercial state west of the ^gean. The 



Cointnerce and Itidiistry 49 

barren soil of the island drove its inhabitants to trade and 
industry, and it became for a time the market of all the 
region about the Saronic Gulf. The ^ginetans were 
famous for their hardware and their beautiful bronze 
work. Next to ^gina came Chalcis and Eretria in Chalcis and 

Euboea. These two cities founded many colonies, which E^^^''^^- 

P- 33. 
increased their commerce, and gained a considerable polit- 
ical power by conquering their neighbors. Then Megara Megara and 

and Corinth began to manufacture and to trade. All these Corinth. 

Pp. 34-37. 
cities grew rapidly in size, and the cost of livings in them 

increased as it became necessary to import food from the 
neighboring countries. In Attica, too, the industries and Attica, 
commerce were growing, and the simple custom of barter 
was giving way to the use of coin. There was as yet little Cf. p. 12. 
money in the country, however, and this readily found its 
way into the coffers of the rich. The large landowner, 
who in former time could find no market for his produce 
outside of the country, had contented himself with making 
a living for his family, slaves, and tenants; of late, how- 
ever, he had found that by shipping his grain and cattle to 
Corinth, ^gina, and Chalcis, he could receive a high price 
for his cargo. But as Attica yielded only enough food to 
support the population, those of little means were soon 
brought to the verge of starvation. The small freeholders, 
compelled to mortgage their farms, practically became 
tenants. The tenant gave to the owner a sixth of the 
produce of the land he tilled; but when he found it diffi- 
cult to pay his rents, he mortgaged himself and his family 
to the lord; then, when the debt fell due, he and his 
family became the slaves of the creditor. Thus many who 
had once been free were now in slavery for debt either in 
their own country or in foreign lands. It had come about 
that there were but two classes in the state : the few very 

E 

/ 

/ 



50 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Solon. 



Plut. Solon ; 
Arist. Ath. 
Const, 5-12. 



Archon and 
thesmothete, 
594 i*-C. 



rich, and the many very poor; and the poor were fast 
losing their freedom. 

But even the common people of Attica were too intelli- 
gent to be slaves. They prepared to resist the nobles, and 
demanded a redistribution of lands, and more political 
rights. They were arming themselves against the nobles 
to enforce their demands when Solon came between the 
two parties as a peacemaker. 

Solon, who claimed descent from King Codrus, belonged 
to one of the noblest families of Attica. As his father left 
him little property, he became a trader and visited many 
countries to increase his fortune and, at the same time, his 
knowledge. He became so wise that people reckoned him 
among the "Seven Sages," who were supposed to have 
more than human understanding. But Solon was a gen- 
eral as well as a thinker; he proved his ability in war by 
wresting Salamis from the Megarians and annexing it to 
Attica. His success in this enterprise as well as his high 
birth recommended him to the nobles. The poor re- 
spected him for his character and for the kindly feeling 
which he had for them. He is the first person in Athe- 
nian history with whom we are well acquainted, and we 
cannot help admiring him as much as the ancients did. 
We know him through the fragments of his poems which 
have come down to us. His name is the first in Attic 
literature; he wrote excellent lyrics, and when he wanted 
to address his fellow-citizens on political questions he still 
composed in verse, as no one yet thought of writing prose. 
He was no mere idealist, as we might expect a poet and 
thinker to be, but a clear-headed, sober-minded, practical 
statesman. "Nothing in excess," a maxim of his, sums 
up his character and political principles. The citizens 
elected him Archon and " legislator " for the year 594 B.C., 



Solon 5 1 

for by holding these two offices at once he would have all 
the power he needed to settle the existing troubles. 

It was customary for the Archon on the day he entered 
office to issue an edict assuring the citizens the undis- 
turbed possession of their property during the year. But Abolition oi 
the power to give such an assurance implies a power to ^^^*^' 
redistribute property. Solon, accordingly, in his edict 
abolished all public and private debts contracted on the 
security of land or person, thus setting both land and 
people free. Out of gratitude for their emancipation, the 
people thereafter celebrated annually their "Festival of 
Disburdening."^ As "legislator," Solon then made the 
following laws to reenforce his edict : — 

(i) All who are in slavery for debt shall be free. 

(2) No one shall sell his children and kinswomen into 
slavery. 

(3) No one shall lend money on security of the per- Personal 

gQjj liberty laws. 

(4) No one shall own more than a certain amount of 
land fixed by law. 

These laws, he thought, would secure the personal free- 
dom of the citizens forever. 

His next object was to provide his country with money Coinage and 

of her own; for up to this time she had used only the sil- "^^^ 

standard. 

ver piece of ^gina, called the "tortoise" from the figure 
stamped on its back. But her more friendly neighbor, 
Chalcis, had issued a lighter silver coin, which Solon 
adopted as a standard for his city.^ This enabled those 

^ This is the meaning of Seisachtheia. The measure itself is not 
properly so called. __ 

^ According to this standard the ratio of silver to gold was as thirteen 
to one; the relative value of silver was somewhat greater than in the 
present coinage of the United States. 



52 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Solon and 
Draco. 



Industrial 
and com- 
mercial 
regulations. 



P. 36 f. 



P-33. 



who still owed to pay more easily, and helped trade with 
Euboea, with the Chalcidic colonies, with Egypt, and with 
all other countries which used the same standard. Thus 
Solon introduced Athens to a commercial world which she 
had scarcely known before. The Athenians never again 
abolished debts or debased their currency, but followed a 
financial policy as sound as has obtained in any ancient or 
modern state. 

We may judge how mild Solon was from his treatment 
of Draco's laws. Those which related to homicide he 
accepted without change, for he believed them to be just; 
but in the case of other offences, he lightened the penal- 
ties which he found too severe; and as he knew that the 
courts had acted harshly, he tried to undo their mischief 
by recalling from exile all whom he believed to have been 
unjustly banished. He aimed in a kindly spirit to help 
the poor by forbidding the exportation of all products of 
the soil except olive-oil. His object was to prevent the 
recurrence of famine by keeping the food produced in the 
country at home; but as the rich and powerful were likely 
to transgress this law, and as Solon felt that the state 
could not bring them to justice, he merely ordered that 
the archons should curse offenders against the law, or be 
liable to a fine of a hundred drachmas. In the same 
spirit, Solon made laws to encourage skilled industry, and 
compelled every man to teach his son a trade. Attica had 
too poor a soil to support many from its farms and herds; 
but when the Athenians were led in this manner to manu- 
facture wares for exportation, they made money by the sale 
of their goods, so that they could import food and the raw 
materials needed for their industries. They got salt fish 
from the Hellespont, grain from the Black Sea region and 
from Egypt, iron and bronze from Chalcis, and after clear- 



Constitutional Reforms 53 

ing their own country of forests, they began to import tim- 
ber for ship-building from Thrace, near Chalcidice. There P. 36. 
was clay for fine pottery near Athens, and in the mountains 
were quarries of beautiful marble. The Athenian vases 
and bronze and iron wares were in demand all over Greece 
and even in foreign states, as in Rome, Etruria, and Car- 
thage. With the growth of commerce and industry, life 
became easier and the population much larger; but all 
these results of Solon's lawmaking did not come in their 
fulness for a hundred years or more. 

As Solon believed that the Athenians were spending too Sumptuary 
much money in the worship of their dead, he made laws to ^^^^' 
restrict funeral expenses, forbidding them to sacrifice an 
ox at the grave or to bury more than three pieces of dress 
with the body; and he would not allow mourners to wail 
aloud and tear themselves, as they had been accustomed 
to do, in order to excite pity. He limited, too, the free- 
dom of women, not permitting them to go out at night 
except in a car with a torch-bearer ahead; and when they 
walked abroad, he allowed them but "three articles of 
dress, an obol's worth of food and drink, and a basket no 
more than a cubit in length." The women of Homer's 
time enjoyed as much freedom as men; those of Sparta 
had more, but Athenian women from Solon on came to be 
confined more and more to the house, and their influence 
on the public life and on the society of Athens waned 
through the years that followed. 

Solon made a few changes in the government chiefly to Constitu- 
protect the common people in their rights and to prevent *'°"^^ 

'■ ^ reforms. 

them from falling again into slavery. He had a new 
census taken, and placed all in the first, or highest, class New census. 
whose annual income from their land amounted at least to P. 44. 
500 measures of grain, oil, and wine. The income of the 



54 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solo7z 



Heliaea, 

" popular 

supreme 

court." 



The offices 



and councils. 



The Athe- 
nian Consti- 
tution as 
improved by 
Solon. 



second class ranged from 300 to 500 wet and dry measures; 
that of the third, from 200 to 300 measures; and that of 
the fourth, or lowest, was below 200 measures. Before 
Solon, the thetes, or lowest class, were not in the assem- 
bly, but he admitted them that they might have a voice in 
the election of their magistrates. Then he instituted a 
popular supreme court, to which he admitted as jurors men 
of every class above thirty years of age. This court heard 
appeals from the decisions of judges, and tried the magis- 
trates themselves at the end of their terms, if any one ac- 
cused them of abusing their power. By their admission 
to the assembly and the court, the thetes were enabled to 
protect themselves from oppression and slavery. 

Solon provided that men of the wealthiest class only 
could be generals and treasurers because of the great re- 
sponsibilities of these offices. The first and second classes 
together made up the cavalry, and from them the archons 
were chosen. The third class formed the heavy infantry 
and could fill the less important offices, while the fourth 
class rarely served in war, and then only as light-armed 
troops, paid no taxes, and filled no individual offices. The 
archons and the Council of the Areopagus performed sub- 
stantially the same duties as before. The new council, 
now consisting of just four hundred members, prepared 
measures for presentation to the assembly and assisted in 
conducting the government. Solon's only important con- 
stitutional reforms, however, were those relating to the 
popular court and to the thetes. He had no thought of 
framing an ideal form of government, but wanted merely 
to improve the condition of the poor. The government 
continued to be a timocracy, since public rights were still 
graded according to the census; but he made it more popu- 
lar by admitting the poorest class of citizens to the assem- 



Visit to Egypt 55 

bly and to the supreme court, and by granting an appeal to 
that court from the judgments of magistrates. But as no Cf. p. 48. 
one received pay for public service, the thetes could not 
spend much of their time in court and assembly, so that 
the government was still for the most part in the hands of 
the well-to-do. Solon did not want a democracy; he sim- 
ply desired no more slavery or oppression for the com- 
mons, and he gained his object. 

Realizing that there would still be civil strife in Attica, Law as to 
he ordered the people in case of violent party conflict to ^^^1^^°"- 
join whichever side they deemed most just. Any one who 
held aloof from the contention should be dishonored and 
deprived of the citizenship. His object was to compel 
the commons to take an active part in public life; and he 
believed that they could by united effort bring any sedi- 
tion quickly to a close, as they had done in the case of 
Cylon's conspiracy. P. 45 ^« 

He did not provide for lawmaking in the future, but, Solon's last 
hoping that his arrangements would remain unchanged, he y^^^^* 
bound the Athenians to accept them as they were for a 
hundred years. Yet when he had finished his work, people 
came to his house every day to ask him to change or ex- 
plain the meaning of his laws in such a way as to benefit 
them to the disadvantage of others; and so to avoid mak- 
ing enemies he bought a trading vessel and set out on a 
voyage, telling the Athenians that he should be gone ten 
years. On this journey he went to Cyprus and to Egypt, 
as he himself says in his poems, and Herodotus tells a 
charming story of his visit to the wealthy Croesus, king of 
Lydia, though it is hardly possible that Croesus came to 
the throne so early. When he returned to Athens he found 
his country in as much confusion as ever, and he was now 
himself too old to restore order; but of this we shall speak 



56 Athens and Sparta to the Ti7ne of Solon 



Sparta, about 
750-600 B.C. 

Myth of 
Lycurgus, 



Hdt. i, 65 f. 

Plut. 

Lycurgus. 



in the following chapter. The Athenians always looked 
back to Solon as the author of nearly everything that was 
best in their state, and the moderns generally regard him 
as the wisest and most humane legislator of ancient times. 
The early history of Sparta is very different from that of 
Athens. "The circumstances," says Herodotus, "which 
led to her having a good government were the following : 
Lycurgus, a distinguished Spartan, went to Delphi, to visit 
the oracle. Scarcely had he entered into the inner fane, 
when the priestess of Apollo exclaimed aloud : — 

" Oh ! thou great Lycurgus, that com'st to my beautiful dwelling, 
Dear to Zeus, and to all who sit in the halls of Olympus, 
Whether to hail thee as god I know not, or only a mortal, 
But my hope is strong that a god thou wilt prove, Lycurgus. 

Some say, besides, that the priestess gave him the entire 
system of laws which are still in force among the Spartans. 
The Lacedaemonians, however, themselves assert that Ly- 
curgus, when he was guardian of his nephew, Labotas, king 
of Sparta, and regent in his place, introduced them from 
Crete; for as soon as he became regent, he substituted 
new customs and made the citizens obey them. After this 
he organized the army and instituted a council and magis- 
trates called ephors." Plutarch says he went both to Crete 
and to Ionia to compare the customs of these countries; 
but he preferred those of the Cretans because they were a 
sober and temperate people, whereas the lonians were deli- 
cate and luxurious; and that on his return, he remade the 
whole state in Cretan fashion. "After his death," Herod- 
otus continues, "the Lacedaemonians built him a temple, 
and ever since they have worshipped him with the utmost 
reverence. As their soil was good and their people were 
many, they grew rapidly in power and became a prosperous 
state." 



Lacedcemon 57 

The truth in this myth is, that the Lacedaemonians had -Criticism of 
a god named Lycurgus, who, they thought, had once been ^^^ "^^^^* 
a hero among them and had given them their laws and 
government; and as they saw that their own customs were 
like those of Crete, they believed that Lycurgus brought 
them from that country. In reality, the Spartan institu- 
tions were a result of their surroundings. 

The rule of Sparta, as has been said, was that of a plain Spartan 
over the hills. The valley of the Eurotas supported in conquests. 
early times a large number of farmers who were wealthy p, 28. 
enough to supply themselves with full armor. By means 
of her heavy infantry, Sparta conquered all Laconia and 
held it in subjection. Then she began to attack Messenia. 
This "First Messenian War," as it is called, ended in the About 
complete conquest of that country, because it had no cen- 725 b.c. 
tral government and was therefore unable to withstand so Paus. iv, 
mighty a power as Sparta. The Messenians became serfs 4-24- 
and were compelled to till their own fields for the Spar- 
tans, paying them half the produce : " even as asses worn Tyrt^us" 
with heavy burdens, bringing to their masters under hard P^"^^- 
necessity the half of whatsoever the soil produces." They 
revolted and were helped by their neighbors; but the Spar- 
tan infantry triumphed again in this "Second Messenian About 
War," and the conquered took upon themselves once more 650 e.g. 
the yoke of slavery. 

The Spartans were too proud and too exclusive to share Spartan 
their citizenship with the conquered in Laconia and jMes- education. 
senia; and as they were themselves never more than eight 
or nine thousand of military age, while their subjects were 
numbered by the hundreds of thousands, they could main- 
tain their rule only by making of themselves a standing 
army and by keeping up a constant military training. 
Every Spartan must have a sound body to begin with. The 



58 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 

Boys and father brought his boy soon after birth to the elders of his 

youths. tribe; and if they found him puny and ill-shaped, they 

ordered him to be exposed to death in a chasm of the 
mountains near by, but if they judged the boy strong and 
healthy, they assigned him a lot of land for his keeping. 
The Spartan boy was to his seventh year in the care of 
his mother; then the state took charge of his education, 
and placed him in a company of lads under a trainer. 
From the age of twelve he must gather reeds for his own 
bed from the banks of the Eurotas, and must learn to live 
without underclothing and to go barefoot winter and sum- 
mer. Every year the boys must give a test of their endur- 
ance by submitting to a whipping before the altar of the 
goddess Artemis, and he was the hero who could endure 
the flogging longest. Boys, youths, and young men were 
organized in troops and companies, and exercised in 
marching, sham fighting, and gymnastics. They were 
taught to hunt and to be nimble and cunning, but their 
only mental culture was in music and poetry. The whole 
object of their education was to make brave, strong, and 
well-disciplined soldiers. The maidens passed through a 
training like that of the youths, though less severe. They, 
too, practised running, leaping, and throwing the spear 
and discus. The state encouraged them to such exercise, 
as it considered the gymnastic education of women neces- 
sary to the physical perfection of the race. 

Young men. At the age of twenty the Spartan youth became a young 
man, and as he was now liable to military service in the 

Thesyssitia, field, he joined a "mess," or brotherhood of about fifteen 

" messes " 

comrades each, who ate together in war and in peace. The 

members of the mess to which he applied voted on his 

admission with bread crumbs, " throwing them into a basin 

carried by the waiter around the table; those who liked the 



spartan Discipline 59 

young man dropped their ball into the basin without chang- piut. 
ing its figure, and if any one disliked him, he pressed the ^y^^^S^^- 
crumb flat between his fingers and thus gave his negative 
vote. And if there were but one of these flattened pieces 
in the basin, the candidate was rejected, so desirous were 
they that all the members of the company should be 
agreeable to each other." Each member must furnish his 
monthly share of barley meal, wine, cheese, figs, and 
money for meat and dainties; also a part of whatever 
game he got by hunting. The "black broth" was the 
national Spartan dish, relished by the elderly men, though 
the young men preferred meat. Thus their fare was sim- 
ple but sufficient; and no one could say that they were 
spoiled for war by being overfed. 

At thirty the Spartan became a mature man and could Mature men. 
now attend the assembly, but he did not cease from mili- 
tary service and training till his sixtieth year. Though com- 
pelled by law to marry, he could have no home and could 
not even claim his family as his own. All the older Spar- 
tans regarded the younger as their children, and the young 
were taught to respect and obey any of the citizens as 
much as their own fathers. But while the Spartan ate in 
the barracks and passed his time in military exercises, his 
wife lived in comfort and luxury. Aristotle says that Women. 
Lycurgus, after subjecting the men to discipline, tried to 
make the women orderly, but failed, and permitted them 
therefore to live as they pleased. As they could inherit 
and acquire property in Laconia, and as men were not 
permitted to engage in business, it resulted in time that 
two-fifths of the land in the state came into the hands of 
the women. 

The helots, or state serfs, tilled the fields of the Spartans, Helots, 
paying them fixed rents in kind, and were required in 



6o Athetis and Sparta to the Time of Solon 

addition to do work for any Spartan who asked it. They 
served in war as light-armed troops, and some were given 
their freedom for bravery and faithfulness. They lived 
with their families on the farms they worked, or grouped 
together in villages. Their lords had no right to free 
them or to sell them beyond the borders of the country; 
and under favorable conditions they could even acquire 
property of their own. Still, their condition was hard, for 
the more intelligent they were, the more the Spartans 
dreaded and oppressed them. The rulers organized a 
secret police force of youths, which was to watch over 
the helots, and put out of the way any one who might be 
regarded as dangerous to the community. "Most of the 
Lacedaemonian institutions were especially intended to 
secure them against this source of danger. Once, when 
they were afraid of the number and vigor of the helot 
youth, they proclaimed that a selection should be made 
of those helots who claimed to have rendered the best ser- 

Thuc. iv, 80. vice to the Lacedaemonians in war, and promised them 
liberty. The announcement was intended to test them; it 
was thought that those among them who were foremost in 
asserting their freedom would be most high-spirited, and 
most likely to rise against their masters. So they selected 
about two thousand, who were crowned with garlands and 
went in procession round the temples; they were supposed 
to have received their liberty; but not long afterwards the 
Spartans put them all out of the way, and no man knew 
how any one of them came to his end." 

Perioeci, The perixci were between the helots and the Spartans in 

we ers- j-^nk. They inhabited the towns of Laconia and Messenia, 
around. •' 

and at first enjoyed independence in all local matters; but 
as time went on Sparta encroached on their liberties by 
sending out officers to rule over them. They paid war 



Lacedcemonian Gover7iment 6i 

taxes and served as heavy-armed troops in the Lacedae- 
monian army. As the land left them by the conquerors 
was the poorest in the country, many of them made their 
living by skilled industry and trade. While the Spartans 
themselves could use only iron money, the perioeci were P. 256. 
not thus hampered in their business. On the whole, they 
could not have been badly treated, for they remained loyal 
to Sparta for centuries. Spartans, perioeci, and helots 
were alike Dorians, so far as we know; no difference of 
race has been discovered, and we are not certain why the 
Spartans treated some of the conquered as serfs and left Pp. 28 f, 57. 
others free; but perhaps the perioeci were the inhabitants 
of communities which were strong enough to make good 
terms with their conquerors. 

We shall next examine the government of Lacedsemon. Lacedae- 
There is a story that Aristodemus, leader of the Spartans "^°"i^^ 

government. 

on their supposed migration from the North, had twin p^ 28. 
sons, who became kings of their country, and for this 
reason Lacedsemon always had two kings, one from each 
of the royal families founded by the twins. The truth 
probably is, that the two kings were originally chiefs of 
communities which united in the city of Sparta. These 
kings were always quarrelling with each other, and hence 
were weak in their rule. The assembly, on the other hand, 
was strong, as it was composed of all mature Spartans who 
served in the heavy infantry. Now while the kings were 
spending their energy in wrangling, the assembly was tak- 
ing to itself the most important of their powers. It did 
not exercise these powers directly, however, but intrusted 
them to a board of five ephors, or overseers, filled annually The five 
from its own number. In the course of time the ephors ^P'^^^^- 

" overseers." 

placed themselves at the head of the state, while the kings 
came to be no more than priests and generals. Among 



62 Athens and Sparta to the Time of Solon 



Gerousia, 
" council of 
thirty." 



Influence 
abroad. 

P. 22. 



Spartan 
culture. 



Terpander. 



Jebb, p. 56. 
Tyrtaeus. 



the Spartans were some especially noble families, who were 
represented in the council by twenty-eight elders and the 
two kings. The council lost influence along with the kings 
to such an extent that, at the time Solon was making laws 
for the Athenians, the Lacedaemonian government, though 
a kingship in name, had come to be in reality an aristoc- 
racy of the heavy-armed infantry. 

From the earliest times the Lacedaemonians were am.bi- 
tious for influence among the states of Greece. They 
joined the Delphic amphictyony, and continued thereafter 
in the closest relations with Apollo's oracle at the centre 
of the league. Their aim in this was chiefly to gain the 
support of the prophet Apollo for their policy at home and 
abroad. In a like spirit they allied themselves with Elis 
to control the oracle and festival at Olympia; for they felt 
that this would help them to an influential place among 
the Peloponnesian states. 

In the times of which we are speaking the Spartans were 
more cultured than the Athenians. Their life was more 
refined, and they had art and poetry, while the Athenians, 
so far as we know, had none before Solon. Terpander, 
possibly a Lesbian by birth, lived in Sparta early in the 
seventh century b.c, and composed music for the citizens. 
He " is said to have made the first great epoch in Greek 
music by giving the lyre seven strings instead of four. 
This means the discovery of the octave; for, as the eighth 
note only reproduces the first, an instrument with seven 
notes can express the whole diatonic scale." Tyrtaeus, 
who belonged to the time of the Second Messenian War, 
wrote stirring martial strains which excited the Spartans 
to deeds of arms. They sang his songs as they went into 
battle, and under the inspiration of their poet they con- 
quered. Long afterwards they continued to sing them in 



TyrtcBus 63 

camp at meals, and the captain used to reward the best 
singer with a fine slice of meat. Tyrtaeus, like Solon, was 
a statesman and general as well as poet, and helped with 
his strategy to overcome the Messenians. It was the Athe- 
nians probably who, in later times, invented the story that 
Tyrtaeus was a lame schoolmaster sent from their own city 
to help the Spartans in their war with Messenia. While 
his poems were chiefly battle songs, Alcman, who lived Alcman. 
about the same time, was a poet of peace, and sang of 
eating, drinking, and love. The Spartans certainly en- 
joyed life in this age; and, indeed, it required two centu- 
ries or more of their education to stifle their intellectual 
and artistic life, and to make them hard, ignorant, and 

narrow. 

Sources 

For Athens before Solon, Arist. ^/^. Const.'\-\\. For Solon, 2(5. v-xii ; Reading. 
Plut. Solon. For early Sparta, Hdt. i, 65-68; vi, 56-58; Xen. Repub- 
lic of the Lacedcemonians ; V\vX. Lycurgus ; Pausanias, iii (^Laconid). 

Modern Authorities 

The most reliable authority for Athens and Sparta to the time of 
Solon is Gilbert, Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta, 
pp. 1-142. 

(i) The development of forms of government: Holm, History of 
Greece, I, ch. xx; Whibley, Greek Oligarchies, ch. iii; Greenidge, 
Handbook of Greek Constitutional History , ch. ii; Fowler, City- State ^ 
chs. iv, v; Allcroft and Masom, Early Grecian History, ch. ix. 

(2) Athens to the end of Solon's legislation : Oman, History of 
Greece, chs. xi, xii; Holm, I, ch. xxvi; Abbott, History of Greece, I, 
chs. ix, xiii; Curtius, History of Greece, I, bk. II, ch. ii; Grote, History 
of Greece, III, chs. x, xi; Allcroft and Masom, chs. xii, xiii; Gilbert, 
pp. 95-142; Greenidge, ch. vi; ^o\.s,{oxd. Development of the Athetiian 
Constitution, chs. vii-ix, for the principles involved. 

(3) Early Sparta: Oman, chs. vii, viii; Holm, I, chs. xv, xvi; 
Abbott, I, chs. vi, viii; Curtius, I, bk. II, ch. i; Grote, II, chs. vi, vii; 
Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. II, ch. iii; Allcroft and Masom, 
chs. viii, xi; Gilbert, pp. I-81; Greenidge, ch. v. 



<V 



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-Isi^S^^-^^ - -'-- 



Poseidon, Dionysus? and Demeter? 

(From the Parthenon Frieze.) 



CHAPTER IV 



The wooing 
of Agariste, 
about 
572 B.C.(?) 

Hdt. vi, 
126-131. 



PELOPONNESE AND ATHENS: FROM TYRANNY TO DE- 
MOCRACY (the sixth century B.C.) 

Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon in the time of Solon, held 
the most splendid court in Greece. As he had no son, he 
wished to marry his daughter, Agariste, to the best hus- 
band he could find. Accordingly, at the Olympic games, 
after winning a victory in the chariot race, he made the 
following announcement: "Whoever of the Greeks thinks 
himself worthy to become the son-in-law of Cleisthenes, 
let him come sixty days hence to Sicyon; for within a 
year's time Cleisthenes will decide on the man to whom 
he shall give his daughter." So all the Greeks who were 
proud of their own merit or of their country flocked to 
Sicyon as suitors; and Cleisthenes had a foot-course and a 
wrestling-ground made ready, to try their powers. Now 
when they had all come, Cleisthenes inquired of each con- 
cerning his country and his family; after which he kept 
them with him a year and made trial of their manly bear- 

64 



Cleisthenes of Sicyon 65 

ing, their accomplishments, and their disposition. Such 
as were still youths he took with him from time to time 
to the gymnasia; but the greatest trial of all was at the 
banquet-table. Though he entertained them all sumptu- 
ously, he was most pleased with the suitors who came from 
Athens. There were Megacles, grandson of the archon P. 45. 
who had put down the conspiracy of Cylon, and Hippo- 
cleides, the wealthiest and handsomest of the Athenians. 
He preferred the latter because of his manliness, and 
because his people were related to the ruling family of 
Corinth. 

When the day came on which Cleisthenes was to declare 
his choice, he first made a sacrifice of a hundred oxen and 
invited to the banquet the suitors and all the people of 
Sicyon. After the feast, the suitors vied with each other 
in music and in speaking on a given subject. Presently, 
as the drinking advanced, Hippocleides called aloud to 
the flute-player to strike up a dance; and Hippocleides 
danced. He fancied that he was dancing excellently; but 
Cleisthenes, who was observing him, began to suspect his 
conduct. Then Hippocleides, after a pause, told an atten- 
dant to bring in a table; and when it was brought he 
mounted it and danced first Laconian figures and then 
Attic; after which he stood on his head on the table, and 
began to toss his legs about. Cleisthenes, who could no 
longer contain himself, cried out, " Son of Teisander, you 
have danced your wife away! " "What does Hippocleides 
care?" was the other's answer, and this, it is said, became 
a proverb. But Cleisthenes bestowed Agariste on Mega- 
cles, and she became the mother of Cleisthenes, the Athe- 
nian lawgiver, and the great-grandmother of the still more 
famous Pericles. 

This story from Herodotus introduces us to the social 



66 Pelopomiese and Athens 

life of Sicyon in the reign of Cleisthenes, when this city 

Sicyon. was at its best. Sicyon was a little city-state with a nar- 

Pp. 20 f, 29. row territory in the valley of the Asopus. Its soil, though 
fertile, could not support many citizens; but the family of 

670-560 B.C. Cleisthenes, which held the power for more than a century, 
by promoting trades and traffic, gave the city an enviable 
place among the states of Greece. Cleisthenes was the 
most brilliant of all the rulers of Sicyon. He freed his 

P. 29. state from the influence of Argos in politics and religion, 

and from the dominion of the old nobility. He brought 
about the latter result by setting aside the three old 
Dorian tribes which the nobles had controlled, and intro- 
ducing four new tribes, in which the citizens were all to 

Hdt. V, 68. be free from their great lords. As three of the new tribes 
were apparently in the country, he used to call them in 
jest the Piglings, Donkeys, and Porkers. He was a patron 
of art; and in his reign his city became the seat of a famous 
"school," which continued for centuries to produce great 
works in sculpture. 

The "First Across the Corinthian Gulf from Sicyon was the port 

town of Cirrha, and inland on the road from the port to 
Delphi was the city of Crisa. Pilgrims to Delphi from the 
South and West usually landed at Cirrha and took their way 

Pp. 29, 62. through Crisa. Though the laws of the Delphic amphic- 
tyony declared that all the roads to the sacred city should 
be free, the people of Cirrha and Crisa were so impious as 
to enrich themselves by levying tolls on pilgrims. Cleis- 
thenes, in alliance with Athens and Thessaly, waged war 
on the offending cities and blotted them out of existence. 

594- This is called the "First Sacred War," as it was the first 

590 B.C. ( ) ^^^^ which was carried on for the protection of Delphi. 

P. 100. Commercial jealousy of Cirrha and a desire to meddle in 

the affairs of central Greece led Cleisthenes to engage in 



Sacred 
War." 



< 



The Tyrant 6"/ 

it; but it had an important result as it brought Sicyon and 
Athens close together, and it was to cement this union that 
Cleisthenes gave his daughter to the Athenian Megacles, 
son of Alcmeon, his fellow-general in the war. 

We may infer from what has been said that Cleisthenes, The Greek 
though a tyrant, was on the whole a wise and able ruler. *y^^^t- 
Indeed, a tyrant in the Greek sense was not necessarily a 
bad ruler, but simply one who usurped the authority or 
held it by unconstitutional means. Often when there 
was strife between the factions of an oligarchy, as at 
Athens in Cylon's time, the noble leader who was defeated P. 45. 
in the struggle appealed to the commons, promising them 
protection from the oppression of the ruling class in 
return for their support. With the help of the people, 
he overthrew the oligarchs and made himself tyrant. In 
this way most of the Greek tyrannies arose. 

Many of the Greek states in the seventh century were, Benefits of 
like Attica, filled with civil strife; but the tyrants, by ban- the tyranny, 
ishing the disorderly and by compelling those who re- 
mained at home to submit to the laws, reduced their 
countries to peace and harmony. They fulfilled their 
promise to the people by putting an end to the oppressive 
rule of the great nobles, and generally enforced the exist- 
ing laws and constitution, though they robbed them of the 
vitality of freedom. The tyrants encouraged religion, lit- 
erature, and art, and invited to their courts the best poets, 
painters, sculptors, and architects they could find in 
Greece. They educated the common people by fostering 
the forms of religion and poetry adapted to them; and by 
training all classes alike to obey authority, they prepared 
the way for self-government. Their treaties with foreign 
states, as that of Cleisthenes with Athens and Thessaly, 
secured to their countries the advantages of commerce, and 



68 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Decline of 

the tyranny. 



The Cypseli- 
dae, 655- 
582 B.C. 

Birth of 
Cypselus. 



Hdt. V, 92. 



helped to establish concord throughout the Hellenic world. 
They were the first organizers of peace, the founders of the 
first standing armies after that of Sparta, the first able pro- 
tectors of their states against both civil and foreign foes. 

The usurper himself was generally a wise and energetic 
ruler, but his son or grandson was likely to be a weak, vio- 
lent despot. Ruling families declined rapidly, and rarely 
held their power to the third generation. The Greeks 
were impatient of oppression; and so, when the tyranny 
became useless and burdensome, they hastened to rid 
themselves of it, and remembered thereafter its evils while 
they forgot its benefits. Thus the stories of the tyrants 
told by Herodotus are little more than a recital of their 
vices and violence. 

The family of Cleisthenes was one of the ablest tyrannic 
dynasties of Greece, and held its power longer than any 
other. Next in fame and in length of rule came the 
Cypselidae of Corinth. The old blue-blooded aristocrats of 
that city, who had indeed done much to make it the mis- 
tress of the sea, at length grew narrow and insolent. One 
of their number had a daughter, named Labda, whom none 
of the aristocrats would marry because she was lame, and 
whom he gave therefore to Action, a man of the lower 
class. Some time afterwards the nobles, learning from the 
Delphic oracle that Labda' s infant son would, when he 
became a man, be the ruin of them all, sent ten of their 
number to Action's house to kill the child. When they 
came and asked to see it, the mother, thinking that their 
inquiry arose from kindly feeling to her husband, laid it 
in the arms of one of them. Now they had agreed by the 
way that whoever first got hold of the child should dash it 
against the ground. It happened providentially, however, 
that the babe smiled as the man took it; and he, touched 



The Cypselidce 69 

with pity, could not kill it but passed it to his next neigh- 
bor, who gave it to the third; and so it went safely through 
the hands of all ten. The mother received the child back; 
but when the men went out of the house, she heard them 
reproaching one another for not having done the deed. 
Then in fear she hid her child in a chest, so that when the 
men returned to destroy it, they could not find it any- 
where. From this circumstance, the mother named her 
son Cypselus, after the Greek word for chest. 

When Cypselus became a man, he overthrew the nobles Cypselus and 
and made himself tyrant of Corinth; and though usurpers ^^"ander. 
generally found it necessary to surround themselves with a 
band of soldiers enlisted from other states, Cypselus was so 
beloved by the majority of his subjects that he ruled for 
thirty years without a guard. His son Periander, who suc- 
ceeded him, was compelled to use harsh measures against 
the nobles who opposed him, and laid heavy taxes on the 
wealthy. But he used the revenues in beautifying his city 
and in increasing its power and influence throughout 
Greece. Like Cleisthenes, he was a patron of artists and 
of poets. At his court was a famous poet named Arion, Aiion. 
who composed choral songs in honor of Dionysus, the god ^^^' ^' ^3 ^ 
of life and joy, the favorite deity of the peasants. Choral 
songs were sung by a trained chorus, who accompanied the 
music with dancing, and those in honor of Dionysus were 
the germ out of which grew the drama. ^ 

In the reign of the Cypselidae, Corinth founded many 
colonies, extended her trade in every direction, and 
reached the height of her political importance. They 
were liberal patrons of religion, especially the religion 

of the peasants; and their gifts to the gods at Olympia Paus. v, 

17-19^ 
1 The story of Periander in Herodotus, iii, 48-53, is doubtless highly 
colored by the feeling against tyrants which prevailed in his own day. 



^o 



Pelopojinese and Athens 



Olymp. xiii. 



Damasias of 
Athens, 
582-581 B.C. 



P. 50. 



Troubles in 
Attica. 



P. 45. 



Arist. Ath. 
Const. 13. 



Pisistratus, 
tyrant of 
Athens, 560- 
527 B.C. 



were counted among the wonders of the world. On the 
downfall of their family, Corinth became a well-regulated 
oligarchy. Pindar somewhat later celebrated their city as 
the "portal of Isthmian Poseidon^ and nursery of splendid 
youths. For therein dwell Order and her sisters, Justice 
and Peace, the sure foundation of states, — all of them the 
golden daughters of Law and dispensers of wealth to men." 

In the year in which the reign of the Cypselidae came to 
an end, Damasias, Archon of Athens, tried in vain to make 
himself tyrant of his city. Solon had been too moderate 
to satisfy any one : he had disappointed the poor by not 
dividing among them the property of the rich, and he had 
angered the wealthy and the noble by abolishing debts and 
by lessening their privileges in the government. In addi- 
tion to this trouble, the three local factions strove so 
bitterly with each other in some years as to prevent elec- 
tions. The chief difficulty seems to have been that the old 
nobility, whose estates were for the most part in the Plain, 
tried to monopolize the offices and prevent the election of 
men from the other two sections. Thus Damasias, who 
was Archon for the year 582 b.c, and who probably rep- 
resented the nobles of the Plain, continued illegally for 
the next year in possession of his office, evidently aiming 
to make himself master of Athens. But the artisan and 
peasant classes of the Shore and Hills finally combined 
against him, and drove him from office. The nobles, 
artisans, and peasants then made a compromise by which 
all three classes were represented on the board of nine 
archons. 

Though the elections were held thereafter without dis- 
turbance, the bitterness between the factions increased. 
Solon had been urged by his friends to usurp the govern- 

1 Poseidon received especial worship on the Isthmus. 



The Pisistratidce * 71 

ment, but he was too loyal and unselfish for such a move. 
Pisistratus, Solon's kinsman, was, from natural inclination, 
a friend of the peasants, but unlike Solon, he showed no 
disposition to sacrifice himself for their benefit. He was 
a man of remarkable ability, a brilliant general, and a 
clever politician. Furthermore, he was of a generous and 
sympathetic nature, smooth of speech, and the very es- 
sence of refinement in manners. He gathered under his 
protection the men of the Hills, the landless, and, in a 
word, the entire discontented element of Attica in opposi- 
tion to the Plain and the Shore. Driving one day into the 
market-place at Athens wounded and his mules bleeding, 
he declared that his enemies had tried to kill him. His 
life was no doubt in danger; and though his opponents 
insisted that he had inflicted the wounds himself, the 
people, believing the story, voted him a body-guard. With 
this he seized the Acropolis in 560 B.C., and made himself Hdt. i, 59; 
tyrant. The opposing factions by combining expelled him ^]^^^- ^^"■' 
twice, but twice he regained his authority. On his second 
return he surrounded himself with a strong force of mer- 
cenaries, banished his opponents, and thus made his power 
secure. His rule was mild, and his only enemies were 
among the nobles. 

Pisistratus died at an advanced age, and was succeeded Hippias, 
by his son, Hippias. He and his brother, Hipparchus, *^^^"^ ° 
who was next in age and who helped in the government, 527-510 b.c. 
continued the mild policy of their father. But when the 
younger brother was assassinated because of a private quar- Thuc. i, 20; 
rel, the elder became cruel and suspicious, and this change ^l'^^'^?', 
of policy helped bring about his expulsion in 510 b.c. Cotist. iz-ig. 
Thus Pisistratus and his sons ruled Athens for a half cen- 
tury, with the two interruptions of their exile. We shall 
now consider what they did for their country. 



72 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Arist. Ath 
Const. i6. 



Achieve- Solon had freed many Athenians from slavery, but had 

ments of the j^^^ ^y^^^ penniless.^ Pisistratus furnished them with lots 

Pisistratidae. -^ 

of land by dividing among them the estates of nobles 
Rural policy, whom he had killed in battle or had banished from the 
country; and he provided them, too, with seeds and work 
animals with which to begin farming. He then punished 
the lazy, permitted no idlers in the market-place, and 
compelled many of the city people to move out into the 
country. He sent judges about the country to settle the 
peasants' disputes, that they might not need to come to 
the law-courts of the city; and he often went out himself 
for the same purpose. "It was on one of these trips that, 
as the story goes, Pisistratus had his adventure with the 
man in the district of Hymettus, who was cultivating the 
spot afterwards known as the 'Tax-free Farm.' He saw 
a man digging and working at a very stony piece of 
ground with a stake, and being surprised at his implement, 
he sent and asked what he got out of this plot of land. 
'Aches and pains,' said the man, 'and of these Pisistratus 
must have his tenth.' The man spoke without knowing 
who his questioner was; but Pisistratus was so pleased 
with his frank speech and his industry that he granted 
him exemption from all taxes. And so in general he bur- 
dened the people as little as possible with his government, 
but always cultivated peace and kept them in all quietness. 
Hence the tyranny of Pisistratus was often spoken of as 
the 'golden age.' " 

He provided the peasants with rural festivals, especially 
in connection with the worship of Dionysus, in order that 
country life might seem to them attractive and complete 
in itself. Thus Pisistratus became the father and founder 

1 P. 51 f. For the causes of the poor economic condition of the 
Athenians before Solon, pp. 43, 48-50. 



Rural 
festivals. 



4 



Internal Improvements 



7?> 



of the Attic peasantry, while the great landed estates of 
the nobles disappeared forever. 

Pisistratus and his sons beautified Athens with public Public works, 
works. Among these was the Academy, which Hipparchus 
founded northwest of the city as an exercise ground, and 
the Lyceium, a gymnasium, also outside the city. Here 
one could see the Athenian youths wrestling, "some locked 




The Wrestlers 



close together and tripping one another up by the heels, Lucian, Ana- 
some writhing and twisting, and rolling in the mire." They '^^^^^^^> i- 
built on the Acropolis a temple to Athena called the Heca- 
tompedon because it was a hundred feet long; outside the 
city, on the right bank of the Ilissus, they laid the founda- 
tions of the Olympieium, a stupendous temple to Zeus. As 



74 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Verrall, 
p. 190. 



Court 
society. 



they did not remain in Athens long enough to finish it, 
and as the democracy which followed was unwilling to 
build on their foundations, it was left to the Roman 
Harrison and emperor, Hadrian, to complete. Fifteen of its columns 
are still standing, ''perhaps the most conspicuous of all 
ancient remains in modern times." Painters and sculptors 
as well as architects and common artisans found employ- 
ment on these works. The age shows a great advance in 
art. The drapery of garments was now for the first 
time successfully reproduced, and the structure of the 

body closely imita- 
ted. The society of 
the court, though 
brilliant, was luxuri- 
ous and modish. 
The men wore trail- 
ing linen robes, and 
letting their hair 
grow long, tied it in 
a knot with a clasp 
of golden grasshop- 
pers, while the young 
women had rows of 
small curls about the 
forehead and held 
their arms a little way 
from their sides, so 
as not to rufHe the 
dainty folds of their 
nicely fitting gowns. 
Among the poets at the court were Anacreon, the grace- 
ful poet of pleasure, and Thespis, the first Attic dramatist. 
The drama was the poetry of democracy : it was ad- 



Literature. 







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^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^y^^*^^^B 


■ 



Athenian Lady at Time of Pisistratus 

(Acropolis Museum, Athens.) 



Diplomacy 75 

dressed to the people, and formed a part of the worship 
of their god Dionysus; it demanded a large audience and 
embodied the spirit and energy of freedom. 

The Pisistratidas enforced the laws and constitution, tak- Government, 
ing care only that one of their family should hold the Archon- 
ship. Through them Athens made a great advance in 
government, for now the Athenians first learned the value 
of peace and order. No Megarians or Boeotians devastated 
the Attic fields while they were in power; no oligarch 
ground the peasant with oppressive rents, ejected him from 
his farm, or sold him into slavery. The peasant merely 
paid a tax of ten per cent. — later five per cent. — on the 
produce of his field as the price of security. 

Solon had taught Athens in her relations with other states Alliances, 
to aim at something better than petty border warfare; and 
now Pisistratus, improving upon his kinsman's idea, be- 
came the founder of Athenian diplomacy. In seeking to 
widen his sphere of influence, he allied himself with 
Polycrates of Samos, who had built up a strong naval 
power. The Samian despot swept the ^gean with his 
fleet, robbing friend and foe alike. He used to say that 
he could win more gratitude by restoring to his friend 
what he had taken from him, than by not taking at all. In 
his wealth, in his public works, and in his patronage of 
culture, he was the most magnificent tyrant of his day. 
Pisistratus entered into close friendship, too, with Thes- 
saly and Lacedaemon, at this time the strongest powers in 
continental Greece, and with nearly all the other promi- 
nent Greek states. 

The Athenians had already seen that they must gain con- Sigeium. 
trol of the Hellespont in order to trade easily with the 
country about the Black Sea. Pisistratus, accordingly, 
renewed a former colony at Sigeium, near the Hellespont, 



76 



Peloponnese and Athejis 



Chersonese. 



P. 39. 



Miltiades. 



Hdt. vi, 
34-39- 



and placed one of his sons in command of it. About the 
same time, Athens secured control of the Thracian Cherso- 
nese in the following manner. The Dolonci, a Thracian 
tribe in the Chersonese, being harassed by their enemies, 
sent their princes to Delphi to consult Apollo about the 
matter. His priestess bade them take with them as a 
founder into their country the man who should first offer 
them hospitality after they had quitted the temple. As 
the Dolonci returned along the sacred road through Phocis 
and Boeotia, no one invited them in; and finally they 
turned aside and travelled towards Athens. Now Milti- 
ades, a great noble, who chanced to be sitting in the porch 
of his country house, saw these strangers as they passed 
along the road; and knowing by their garb that they were 
foreigners, he invited them in and gave them entertain- 
ment. The strangers accepted his hospitality, and after 
dinner told him of the oracle, and begged him to obey the 
god. Miltiades, who found the government of Pisistratus 
irksome and wanted an opportunity to go abroad, readily 
gave his consent; and Pisistratus permitted him to lead 
out an Athenian colony to the Chersonese. The Dolonci 
elected him king, and he immediately built a wall across 
the neck of the Chersonese to protect it from enemies. 
He proved so able a ruler that when he died the people 
of the country instituted a festival, in which they honored 
him thereafter as the founder of their state. As he had no 
sons, he left his kingdom and wealth to his nephew, Ste- 
sagoras, who was soon afterwards assassinated; and then 
the Pisistratidae sent out another nephew, Miltiades, who 
changed the kingship into a tyranny and surrounded him- 
self, for his own safety, with a band of mercenaries. This 
second Miltiades was to prove one of the world's great 
military heroes. 



Lace deem on 77 

Pisistratus found in the Delian League another opportu- Deiian 
nity to extend his influence abroad. This league had league. 
declined, and the ground about the shrine of Apollo on 
Delos, on which the lonians in earlier times had held 
their games and festivals, was now a cemetery. But Pisis- 
tratus had the bodies removed and the island purified. 
He then revived the festival, and made Athens the head 
of the religious league, which was afterwards to become 
political under the name of the Delian Confederacy. 

Such was the rule of the Pisistratidse. But in order to Peloponne- 
understand the causes of their overthrow, it is necessary to ^^^"^ eague. 
learn how Sparta became strong enough to interfere in 
Athenian affairs. After the conquest of Messenia, the P. 57- 
Lacedaemonians seized some of the Arcadian territory to 
the north of them. They wanted all Arcadia, for they Sparta and 
needed more land and helots to give support to a larger ^'^^'^i'^- 
number of heavy-armed Spartans. On consulting the oracle About 
at Delphi as to their prospects of success in war with the 
Arcadians, they received the following reply : — 

The land of Arcadia thou askest; thou askest too much; I refuse it; 

Many there are in Arcadian land, stout men, eating acorns; 

These will prevent thee from this; but I am not grudging towards thee; 

Tegea beaten with sounding feet I will give thee to dance in, 

And a fair plain I will give thee to measure with line and divide it.^ 

In this way the oracle deceived them into attacking 
Tegea, a strong Arcadian city near their border; for the 
Tegeans made them dance to a tune which they did not 
like, and thus literally fulfilled the word of the god. The 
Arcadians, like the modern Swiss, a simple race of 
mountaineers, knew how to defend their homes. They 

^ Hdt. i, 66. But probably no oracles have come down to us pre- 
cisely in the form in which they were given. Most or all of them were 
made up, or at least revised, after the events to which they refer. 



7?' 



Peloponnese a7td Athens 



Sparta and 

Argolis, 
about 
550 B.C. 



Hdt. i, 82. 



proved more warlike than the Messenians, and their brave 
resistance forced the Lacedaemonians to abandon the hope 
of conquering Peloponnese and to adopt instead a federal 
policy, — a policy of making treaties of permanent peace 
and alliance with the states about them. Tegea united 
with Sparta, and the other Arcadian communities followed 
its example. Elis was already in the league, and Corinth 
and Sicyon joined it soon after the overthrow of their 
tyrants. The federation thus formed we shall term the 
Peloponnesian League. By the middle of the sixth century 
B.C., Sparta had united all Peloponnese except Achaea and 
Argolis under her leadership. 

About this time the Lacedaemonians were quarrelling with 
the Argives for the possession of Cynuria, which was 
within the limits of Argolis, but which had been seized 
by the Lacedaemonians. Argolis then included the entire 
strip of coast country east of Mt. Parnon, and, in addition, 
the island of Cythera. Now it was for the possession of 
this strip of land that the two states were contending. But 
before any battle was fought, the parties agreed that three 
hundred Spartans and three hundred Argives should fight 
for the place. The other troops on each side were to go 
home so as not to be drawn into the contest. The battle 
began, and so equally were the combatants matched and 
so fierce was the struggle, that at the close of the day only 
three men were left alive, two Argives and a single Spar- 
tan. The Argives, regarding themselves as the victors, 
hurried home to tell the news, while the Spartan, remain- 
ing on the field, stripped the bodies of his fallen enemies 
and carried their armor into the Spartan camp. After 
some disputing as to which side gained the victory, it was 
at length decided in favor of Sparta. Thereupon the 
Argives, who up to that time had worn their hair long. 



Peloponnesian League 



79 



cut it off close, and made a law, to which they attached a 
curse, binding themselves never more to let their hair grow, 
and never to allow their women to wear gold, until they 
should recover Cynuria. The Lacedaemonian state was now 
the largest in all Greece, including, as it did, Laconia, 
Messenia, and the newly acquired Cynuria; and in addi- 
tion to this, it was the acknowledged head of the Pelopon- 
nesian League. 




THE / ly^J 

PELO'PONNESIA^ ^ 
LEAGUE 

States dependent upon Sparta 
States in alliance uith Sparta 



BorMifiO->.,U.f,, 



This league had no common federal constitution, such Organiza- 
as that of the United States, but each community had its peioponne- 
own treaty with Lacedaemon. Deputies from the allied sian League, 
states met in a congress to settle questions of war and 
peace; and the states furnished troops to serve in war 
under the Lacedaemonian kings. They did not pay tribute 
to Sparta, but divided among themselves the expenses of 
the league, which were always light. Thus the states 
enjoyed independence and at the same time the advan- 
tages of union. Sparta desired of her allies merely that Thuc. i, i8 £ 
they should be governed by oligarchies; because she knew 



8o 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Alcmeonidae. 



P. 75. 



P. 72. 



P. 64 f. 



Hdt. V, 63 ; 
Arist. Ath. 
Const. 19. 



510 B.C. 
P. 75. 



Cleisthenes 
and Isagoras. 



Cf. pp. 54, 
71 ; Arist. 
Ath. Const. 
13. 



that oligarchs would be more loyal to her than either 
tyrants or democrats. The states all obeyed her in this 
respect at first, but afterwards some of them became demo- 
cratic. 

The Peloponnesian League dates from the middle of the 
sixth century B.C. Towards the close of the century, 
Megara, after exchanging her tyranny for an oligarchy, 
joined it, thus bringing the Lacedaemonian power to the 
borders of Attica. But the Pisistratidse, who looked upon 
the Lacedaemonian kings as their friends, little suspected 
interference from that quarter. Their bitterest and most 
dangerous enemies were the noble exiles. Among these 
were the Alcmeonidae, one of the wealthiest and most 
influential families of Greece, led now by Cleisthenes, 
grandson of the famous tyrant of Sicyon. As the temple 
of Apollo at Delphi was accidentally burned during their 
exile, the Alcmeonidae undertook to rebuild it far more 
splendidly than the council of the Delphic amphictyony had 
planned. Through their liberality to Apollo they gained 
control of his oracle, so that whenever the Spartans sent to 
consult it on any subject whatever, the reply was always 
the same: "Athens must be set free." At last the Lace- 
daemonians, in obedience to the oracle, invaded Attica 
in concert with the Athenian exiles, and expelled Hippias. 
He went to Sigeium where some of his kinsfolk were, 
and immediately began to intrigue with the Persian author- 
ities with a view to recovering his lost power. 

The nobles who had returned with Cleisthenes from ban- 
ishment took possession of the government, and began to 
rule in lordly style. They disfranchised a great number 
of Athenians, all those apparently whose ancestors had 
received the citizenship from Solon and Pisistratus. But 
Cleisthenes, their chief, soon met a powerful rival in Isago- 



Cleisthe7tes of Athens 8 1 

ras, leader of those friends of Hippias who still remained 
in the country. As Isagoras was elected to the Archonship 
for the year 508 B.C., Cleisthenes, the defeated candidate, 
offered to restore the franchise to the commons in return 
for their support; for up to this time they had taken no 
part in the contest. Cleomenes, king of the Lacedaemo- 
nians, then came to Athens to help Isagoras in the quarrel; 
but the people, indignant at his interference, rose in 
arms, under the lead of the Council of Four Hundred, 
and compelled him to depart from the country. Isagoras 
stole away with the Spartan king, and Cleisthenes then pro- 
ceeded to fulfil his promise to the commons. First he 
divided Attica into more than a hundred demes, or town- Cleisthenes 
ships. These he grouped in ten tribes in such a way that reforms the 

government, 

the townships of a tribe were not all together, but some of ros b.c. 

them in the Hills, others in the Plain, and still others in 

the Shore. His object in creating new tribes was to do Tribes and 

away with distinctions of rank; for the nobles had con- ^^"^^s. 

trolled the old tribes, but the commons were on a level 

with them in the new. His purpose in distributing the 

demes of a tribe among the three sections of Attica was 

twofold : (i) The citizens who lived in or near Athens had Hdt. v, 66; 

a great advantage in politics over the rest because it was "^^'^*' '^^^' 

^ & r Const. Q-xi. 

more convenient for them to attend the assembly; and so 

Cleisthenes arranged that every tribe should have a third 
of its people near the city, that they might represent it 
fairly in the assembly. Had some of the tribes been situ- 
ated wholly near the city and others wholly distant, those 
which were near would have ruled the rest. (2) By divid- 
ing the Shore, Plain, and Hills equally among the ten tribes, 
he destroyed their political organizations, and thus put an 
end to the strife between them. Cleisthenes was success- 
ful in all his plans; the people were thereafter more nearly 

G 



82 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Character of 
the deme. 



Councils. 



Popular 
supreme 
court and 
assembly. 



equal than they had been before, and sectional warfare 
entirely ceased. 

Every Athenian who lived in a deme at the time of its 
organization was enrolled in its register as a "demesman," 
and therefore as a citizen of Athens. Many, too, who had 
not before possessed the franchise, including emancipated 
slaves, were registered as citizens. As a man could not 
transfer his membership from one deme to another, even 
by a change of residence, the deme was not simply terri- 
torial, like the modern township, but had in addition some- 
thing of the character of a family. The deme was a little 
democracy with officers, an assembly of citizens, a religion, 
and almost everything to correspond with the government 
of the state itself. 

The Council of Four Hundred was enlarged to Five 
Hundred. Members were drawn by lot, fifty from each 
tribe, in such a way as to represent the demes according 
to their population. It supervised the whole business of 
government, and prepared measures for presentation to the 
assembly. The Council of the Areopagus contained at 
this time many of the tyrants' friends, who had entered 
it through the Archonship, and who were hostile to the new 
government. Cleisthenes, therefore, found no place of 
honor for it in his new arrangements; yet in the next 
thirty years popular elections filled it with energetic patri- 
ots, who restored to it much of its lost influence. The 
popular supreme court and the assembly remained essen- 
tially as they had been under Solon. There were each 
year perhaps ten sessions of the assembly; but usually few 
attended except on election days, as they received no pay 
for this duty, and the average Athenian could not afford 
to neglect his work without compensation. The assembly, 
besides electing magistrates, decided such important ques- 



Constitutional Reforms 83 

tions as those of war and peace. Laws were still made, so 
far as we know, either by the six ordinary "legislators," Legislation, 
or by a single extraordinary legislator, such as Cleisthenes 
himself. The magistrates had about the same duties as Magistrates, 
before. The number of generals was increased soon after 
Cleisthenes' legislation to ten, — probably from four, — and 
each of these had command of the regiment of infantry 
furnished by his own tribe, while the board of ten gener- 
als, with the polemarch as chairman, directed military 
affairs. 

Cleisthenes introduced a peculiar institution termed Ostracism, 
"ostracism." The word is derived from ostrakon, piece of 
pottery, which was the form of ballot used in the process. 
Once a year, if the Council of Five Hundred and the 
assembly saw fit, the citizens met and voted against any of 
their number whom they deemed dangerous to the state. 
If the archons found, on counting the votes, that there ' 
were at least six thousand in all, they sent the man who 
had received the greatest number into exile for ten years. 
The purpose of ostracism was as follows. Strife between 
political parties before Cleisthenes often took the form of 
civil war, in which the victors destroyed or banished the 
weaker side. Solon had regarded such dissensions as a 
necessary evil, and had encouraged the people, by means 
of his law against neutrality in seditions, to take part in P. 55- 
them; but Cleisthenes through ostracism substituted voting 
for civil war, and required the banishment of the defeated 
leader only, in place of the entire party. As the Athenian 
noble lacked respect for the government, he would not, 
when defeated in his candidacy for office, submit to the 
will of the majority, but preferred rather in defiance of law 
to destroy his more fortunate rival. Ostracism removed 
the dangerous man from the community, and left at the 



84 



Peloponnese and Athens 



Results. 



Athens and 

her 

neighbors. 



head of the state the one whom the people believed to be 
the best and the ablest. 

The chief reforms of Cleisthenes were (i) the new terri- 
torial arrangements, including the equalization of nobles 
and commons in the tribes and demes; and (2) ostracism. 
Though the government still had some aristocratic features, 
such as its property requirements for the higher offices and 
its unpaid public services, yet it was on the whole a de- 
mocracy. 

While these constitutional changes were taking place, 
the state came into great danger from its neighbors. 
King Cleomenes repented his expulsion of Hippias, and 
as he thought that Athens under a despot would be more 
submissive to him, he planned to make his friend Isag- 
oras tyrant. So he gathered the forces of Peloponnese, 
and, without stating his object, led them into Attica, while 
at the same time the Thebans and Chalcidians invaded the 
country in concert with him. The Athenians, though in- 
ferior in number, marched bravely forth to meet the 
Peloponnesians at Eleusis. Fortunately for Athens, the 
Corinthians, on learning the purpose of the expedition, 
refused to take part in it on the ground that it was unjust, 
and the other allies followed their example. As Cleom- 
enes could then do nothing but retreat homeward, the 
Athenians turned about and defeated the Thebans and 
Chalcidians separately on the same day. They punished 
Chalcis for the invasion by taking from her a large tract 
of land, on which they settled four thousand colonists. 
An Athenian An Athenian colony was but an addition to Attica; and 
though it had a local government, its members remained 
citizens of Athens. 

The change from tyranny to popular government filled 
the Athenians with a patriotic enthusiasm and an energy 



colony. 



Attempt to 

restore 

Hippias. 



Hipp - 85 

which must have astonished their neighbors. When the Hdt.v,66,78. 
Lacedaemonians saw them gaining power and indepen- 
dence, they invited Hippias to their city, called a congress Hdt. v, 91 ff. 
of allies, and proposed to restore him. But the deputy 
from Corinth interposed in favor of Athens, and, according 
to Herodotus, made the following speech in the congress : 
"Surely the heavens will soon be below and the earth 
above, and men will henceforth live in the sea and fish 
take their place upon the dry land, since you, Lacedae- 
monians, propose to put down free governments in the 
cities of Greece and set up tyrannies in their room. There 
is nothing in the whole world so unjust, nothing so bloody, 
as a tyranny. If, however, it seems desirable to have the 
cities under a despotic rule, begin by putting a tyrant over 
yourselves, and then establish despots in the other states. 
While you continue yourselves, as you always have been, 
unacquainted with tyranny, and take excellent care that 
Sparta may not suffer from it, to act as you are now doing 
is to treat your allies unworthily. If you knew what tyranny 
was as well as ourselves, you would be better advised than 
you are now in regard to it. . . . We Corinthians marvelled 
greatly when we first knew of your having sent for Hippias, 
and now it surprises us still more to hear you speak as you 
do. We adjure you by the common gods of Greece, plant 
not despots in her cities. If, however, you persist against 
all justice in seeking to restore Hippias, — know at least 
that the Corinthians will not approve your conduct." As 
the other allies agreed with the speaker, Hippias returned 
disappointed to Sigeium, and renewed his plots with the 
Persians against his native land. 

The Athenians were at this time engaged in a distressing 
war with ^gina; the enemy were continually ravaging their 
coasts, and as they had no fleet, they could do nothing to 



86' Pelopomiese and Athens 

prevent it. But they secured their peace with Sparta by 
entering the Peloponnesian League. Their place in it was 
Thuc. vi, 82. exceptionally favorable, as it allowed them complete inde- 
pendence. 

Sources 

For Cleisthenes of Sicyon, Hdt. v, 67-69; vi, 126-131. For the 
Cypselidae, id. i, 23 f; iii, 48-53; v, 92; Paus. v, 17-19. For Pisis- 
tratus and his sons, Hdt. i, 59-64; v, 62-65; Thuc. i, 20; iii, 104; 
vi, 53-59; Arist. Ath. Const. 13-19. For Cleisthenes and- his time 
Hdt. V, 66-96; Arist. Ath. Cotist. 20-22. 

Modern Authorities 

Curtius, History of Greece, I, bk. II, chs. i, ii, excellent treatment of 
the tyrants (including the Pisistratidae), though too much is made of 
the contrast between the Dorians and the lonians. For Cleisthenes, 
Grote, History of Greece., IV, ch. xxxi, and Gilbert, Constitutional An- 
tiquities of Athens and Sparta, pp. 145-153, are especially good. 

(i) The tyrants: Oman, History of Greece., ch. x; Holm, History 
of Greece, I, ch. xxii; Abbott, History of Greece, I, ch. xii; Curtius, 
I, bk. II, ch. i; Grote, III, ch. ix; AUcroft and Masom, Early Grecian 
History., ch. x; Fowler, City-State., ch. v; Mahaffy, Problems of Greek 
History, ch. iv. 

(2) Pisistratus and his sons: Oman, ch. xii; Holm, I, ch. xxvii; 
Abbott, I, ch. xv; Curtius, I, bk. II, ch. ii; Grote, IV, ch. xxx; AU- 
croft and Masom, ch. xiv; Cox, Greek Statesmen, i: Peisistratus and 
Polykrates ; Botsford, Development of the Athenian Constitution., ch. x. 

(3) Cleisthenes and his time: Oman, ch. xvi; Holm, I, ch. xxviii; 
Abbott, I, ch. xv; Curtius, I, bk. II, ch. ii; Grote, IV, ch. xxxi; AUcroft 
and Masom, ch. xv; Cox, i: Kleisthenes ; Gilbert, pp. 145-153; Bots- 
ford, ch. xi. 





1 


^^m^mPk'^m 





" Sappho " 

(National Museum, Rome.) 



CHAPTER V 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL UNITY THROUGH LITER- 
ATURE AND RELIGION (700-479 B.C.) 

The Boeotian poet Hesiod tells us that one day when he Hesiod, 
was herding sheep on the slopes of Mount Helicon, the about 700 b.c. 
Muses came to him and said, " Houseless shepherd, we can 
tell falsehoods which seem true, but we know how to speak 
the real truth when we will; " and thus they persuaded him 
to be a poet of truth. Homer had idealized everything of P. n. 
which he sang, his aim being to entertain; but Hesiod' s 
mission was to teach. He composed an epic poem called 
the Theogony, which told in homely style of the birth of the 
gods and of the creation of the world, — a Greek book of 
Genesis. He wrote, too, the Works and Days, an epic 
which taught morals and agriculture and served at the same 
time as an almanac. It aimed chiefly to give the peasant 

87 



88 Growth of Natiojial Unity 

■■ ■■ useful information. "How could he best use the winter 
and spring, so as to earn his rest in summer when artichokes 
ripen and the cicala sings, when fat kids and temperate 
jebb, p. 41. cups refresh the sun-scorched toiler? When should the 
axle-tree of a wagon be made, and what is the best wood 
for a plough-tail or a pole? How are the cattle to be kept 
fit for work? What is the best way of drying grapes? And 
last, not least, what are the lucky or unlucky days of the 
month for doing these things? " 

As these poems were composed perhaps about 700 B.C., 
they belong to a later age than the most of Homer's poetry. 
P. 15. The king had given way to the nobles, whose merciless op- 

pression was driving the Boeotian peasants to despair. The 
population was so rapidly increasing that men found it 
difficult to make a living; and as Boeotia engaged neither 
in commerce nor in colonization, the poet Hesiod could 
only advise his countrymen to seek a remedy for their dis- 
tress in greater frugality and in more intelligent farming. 
The Lyric The Greeks in the time of Homer had indeed done little 

Age and the thinking for themselves. In the poet's language, they were 
of the Greek sheep and the king was their shepherd. But in the new 
mind, 700- ^g^^ j^qI- Q^jy ^jj^j commerce and colonization stimulate 

479 B.C. 

men to thought, but also the aristocracy, bringing with it 
political discord and storm, forced them to exercise their 
judgment in taking a party attitude. The aristocrats found 
it hard to maintain themselves against the tyrant on the 
one hand, and the fierce democracy on the other. Life 
was full of excitement for the noble, as the perils of war 
hung continually over his head, and he lived with his hand 
on his sword or on the drinking-cup. His surroundings 
compelled him to assert himself; and at the same time, 
various questions as to the nature of man, of society, of 
God, of right and wrong, and of the physical world pressed 



Elegiac and Iambic Poetry 89 

him for answers. As his mind became too active and his 
thoughts too complex for the simple old epic forms, he 
created anew kind of literature, — personal poetry, adapted 
to his needs. Thus a new age in literature began in 
Hesiod's time which lasted for more than two centuries, 
— about 700-479 B.C. It is sometimes called the Lyric 
Age, because lyric poetry, a kind of personal poetry, was 
the chief form of literature produced in it. And as the 
Greeks were at the same time beginning to think actively 
and to lay the foundations of science and philosophy, we 
may also call this the period of the awakening of the Greek 
mind. 

^The elegy is the earliest form of personal poetry. It The elegy. 
arose in Ionia and was originally martial, sung to the flute, 
which resembled the modern clarionet. One of the earliest 
elegiac poets was Callinus of Ephesus, born about 690 b.c. Caiiinus. 
In battle-songs he roused his countrymen against the Cim- 
merians, who were invaders of Ionia from the country north 
of the Black Sea. 

Each must go quick to the front, 
Grasping his spear in his hand and under his shield his untrembling 
Heart pressing, panting for fight, mingling in deadliest fray. 

A little later, Tyrtaeus of Sparta, already mentioned, com- P. 62. 
posed songs of the same nature. 

The next form of personal poetry was the iambic, es- iambic 
pecially adapted to the expression of emotions, from love P®^*""-^'- 
to sarcasm and hate. Its great master was Archilochus of Archiiochus. 
the small island of Paros, a poet whom the Greeks ranked 
with Homer. He was intensely personal, and resembled 
Lord Byron in his love of exhibiting his frailties to the 
public. He was the first great satirist. The story goes 
that a certain Lycambes promised his daughter, Neobule, 
to Archilochus in marriage, but broke his word; and then 



90 



Growth of National Unity 



Lyric poetry 
proper. 



AlcDeus. 



Sappho. 



The choral 
ode. 



Pp. 63, 69. 



Simonides, 
556-468 B.C. 



in revenge the poet with his biting iambics drove Neobule 
and her sisters to suicide. 

The last and highest form of personal poetry is the lyric, 
— the song accompanied by the lyre. The lyric poet com- 
posed the music as well as the words of his songs. There 
were two chief forms of this poetry: the ballad and the 
choral ode. The home of the ballad was Lesbos, and its 
great representatives were the Lesbic poets, Alcseus and 
Sappho, who belonged to the early part of the sixth cen- 
tury B.C. Alcseus passed his life under the hottest fire of 
political warfare, fighting almost constantly against tyrants, 
democrats, or foreign enemies. Mahaffy calls him "an 
unprincipled, violent, lawless aristocrat, who sacrificed all 
and everything to the demands of pleasure and power." 
Sappho was his peer in genius, though her poetry was of 
narrower range. To the ancients she was "the poetess" 
as Homer was "the poet"; and sometimes they styled her 
the "tenth muse." 

Ballads were simple songs of personal experience or 
feeling sung by individuals; but the choral ode was public 
and was sung by a trained chorus, who accompanied the 
music with dancing. Alcman of Sparta composed the first 
poetry of this kind. Because of its public nature, the 
choral ode readily lent itself to the treatment of subjects 
which interested all the Greeks alike, and hence it was the 
first form of poetry, after the epic, to become national in 
spirit. The Greeks were beginning in this age to think of 
one another as kinsmen, as members of the same great 
family, and Greece was, accordingly, summoning her in- 
spired men to give expression to the unity of her national 
life. Simonides of Ceos, an author of choral odes, who 
was born in this age and lived far down into the next, was 
a thoroughly national lyrist. Poets of his class travelled 



The Choi'al Ode gi 

about Greece, visiting the courts of tyrants or of great 
nobles and composing for those who would pay them liberal 
fees. But Simonides, though he turned his genius to earn- 
ing a livelihood in this manner, was nevertheless intensely 
patriotic ; and so it was that when in his old age the Greeks 
had fought for their liberty against the Persians and had 
gained it, they called upon him to write epitaphs for the 
patriots who had fallen in battle, and in later time looked 
back to him as to one inspired.-^ 

Now while Simonides faced the future and took pleasure Pindar, 522- 
in thinking how great his country would one day be, his ^^ ^'^' 
younger contemporary, the priestly Pindar of Boeotia, 
turned to the past and filled his mind with myths and reli- 
gious lore. A thorough aristocrat, he loved the old heaven- 
born nobility, but would write even for merchant prince or 
tyrant who offered him a generous fee. His style and 
rhythms are exceedingly complex; the music which accom- 
panied his odes has been lost, and without the music the 
full effects of Pindar's poetry cannot be appreciated. 
" The glory of his song has passed forever from the world 
with the sound of the rolling harmonies on which it once 
was born, with the splendor of rushing chariots and athletic 
forms around which it threw its radiance, with the white- 
pillared cities of the ^Egean or Sicilian sea in which it jebb, p. 68. 
wrought its spell, with the beliefs or joys which it ennobled; 
but those who love his poetry, and who strive to enter into 
its high places, can still know that they breathe a pure and 
bracing air, and can still feel vibrating through a clear, 

1 A nephew of Simonides, Bacchylides by name, who for centuries 
has been almost unknown, is generally classed as a lyric poet of the 
second rank; but the recent discovery of a manuscript containing sev- 
eral of his odes intact and many fragments brings him into great promi- 
nence. 



92 



Growth of National Unity 



Greece had 
many poets. 



Poetry and 
philosophy. 



Sorrows of 
Demeter. 



calm sky the strong pulse of the eagle's wings as he soars 
with steady eyes against the sun." His most famous 
poems, which alone have come down to us, are his choral 
odes in honor of the victors in the great national games. 

Though Simonides and Pindar were the most eminent of 
the lyric poets, there were many besides these, and they 
flourished in all parts of Greece. Obscure islands and 
remote shores as well as the great centres of political 
activity had their lyrists, who in many instances composed 
beautiful songs. But the works of some have utterly per= 
ished; of others we have mere shreds. Pindar and Bac- 
chylides have had the best fortune of all, for the odes 
which represent them at their best have survived. 

Greek philosophy developed from poetry. The poets 
of this age were themselves thinkers and sought for the 
causes of things, but found them only in the agency of 
the gods. For instance, to explain the changes in the 
seasons, they told the story of Demeter and her daughter, 
Persephone. Demeter was a goddess who lived with the 
great deities on Mount Olympus. One day her daughter 
and other maidens were gathering flowers in a meadow, 
and were picking roses and lilies which they found growing 
in clusters, when Persephone ran apart from her friends to 
pluck a beautiful narcissus which stood at a distance alone. 
She was just reaching out her hand to take the flower when 
the earth opened near her, and from the cleft came a 
gloomy-faced man in a chariot drawn by black horses. He 
immediately seized Persephone, and, placing her in the 
seat beside himself, drove down through the gulf into the 
earth. The strange man was Hades, king of the dead; 
and in this manner he was taking Persephone to be his 
wife and queen. But Demeter, finding that her child was 
lost and not knowing whither she had gone, wandered up 



Poetry and Philosophy 93 

and down the earth seeking her daughter night and day. 
In her grief and anger, she forbade the fruits and crops to 
grow and made the whole earth cold and barren. But 
after a time Persephone got permission of her lord to re- 




A Greek Vase 

(Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemus.) 

turn to her mother for a brief season. Demeter was so 
glad to see her child again that her joy made the earth 
warm and caused the trees to put forth their leaves and the 
grass and wheat to grow. Then Zeus and Hades agreed 
that Persephone should remain with her mother two-thirds 
of the year and the other third with her husband. The 
joy of Demeter in having Persephone with her caused the 
spring and summer, while her sorrow for the absence of 
her daughter through the remaining months brought the 
winter. The poets supposed, too, just as the uneducated 
people did, that heaven remained above the earth only 
because a giant supported it on his shoulders. "Atlas, the 



94 Growth of National Unity 

Atlas, the Titan, tamed under torturing bonds of adamant, sustains 
Titan. Qj^ jj-g ]3ack, with heavy groans, the vast weight of the 

yEschyius, revolving heavens. And the ocean surge roars in cadence, 
romet eus, ^j^^ abyss beneath moans, and the dark recess of the gloomy 
region of the dead rumbles under the earth, yea, the very 
springs of the clear-flowing rivers wail in pity for his pain." 
In a similar way they tried to explain everything in nature; 
but as they believed that the gods were constantly quarrel- 
ing and fighting among themselves, they could have no 
The phiioso- idea of the harmony of the universe. The philosophers 
^ ^'^^' advanced beyond the poets (i) in seeking natural causes 

for everything and (2) in believing that the world was a 
unit. The early philosophers usually expressed their 
thoughts in verse, as there was almost no prose literature 
in their time; and so the philosopher did not seem at first 
to be very different from the poet. 
Thales, It was in Miletus, the centre of Greek civilization in 

this period, that Thales, the first Greek philosopher, lived. 
As his prime of life began with the sixth century, he was a 
younger contemporary of Solon. He was something of a 
mathematician and astronomer, the first of the Greeks to 
predict accurately an eclipse of the sun. He was one of 
the "seven sages," ^ a many-sided, practical philosopher 
of the Ben Franklin type, famous for his wise saws. He 
believed that water was the one original substance out of 
which the world was formed. His idea was wrong, but in 
seeking for a natural cause and in thinking that the world 
was a unit, that is, made of one substance, he achieved 
more than the poets had done. He and his followers com- 

1 About 600 B.C. there were several men in Greece who taught prac- 
tical morals by means of short maxims, as " Know thyself," " Nothing 
too much," and " It is hard to be good." They were called the " seven 
sages," though their number was really indefinite. 



Philosophy 95 

posed the "Ionian School" of philosophy. This school 
may be described as materialistic, since it sought the cause 
of all things in some material substance. 

Pythagoras of Samos, who went to live in Croton in Italy, Pythagoras. 
founded there a new school of philosophy, which came to 
be called Pythagorean, after himself. He made thought 
more scientific by laying stress on mathematics. Number 
was to him the primary idea and cause of all things; but 
his especial fault was attaching to numbers a mystical 
power unknown to true science. His followers formed, 
not merely a school, but a political and religious sect as 
well. They were pledged to live austere lives, to abstain 
from animal food, and to perform a multitude of rituals. 
They came to have great political influence, and their 
societies, or brotherhoods, gained control of the govern- p. 143. 
ment of several cities in southern Italy. 

Xenophanes of Colophon founded in Elea of Italy a Xenophanes 
third school of philosophy, called the Eleatic school. He ^^^ ^!^^ 
taught that all things were a unit and that the unit was God. 
The Eleatics were the first to study metaphysics, — the 
science which aims to discover the nature of beifig. The 
ablest man of their school was Parmenides, who lived far 
down into the fifth century. According to their theory, 
there could be no real change or motion in nature; the 
senses were simply deceived as to these things. But Hera- Heracleitus. 
cleitus of Ephesus, who founded a school of his own, de- 
clared in opposition to the Eleatics that everything was in 
a state of movement and flow, of continual growth and 
decay, and thus he set forth evolution as his primary 
idea.^ All these systems of philosophy were founded by 
lonians; and all had their origin in the sixth century, 

1 From this it is evident that evolution is by no means a distinctly 
modern idea. 



96 Growth of National Unity 

except that of Heracleitus, who began to teach about 
500 B.C. 
Morals and Poets and philosophers were the teachers of the age, and 
religion. under their guidance the Greeks were improving in morals 

and religion as well as in science. The world was growing 
better. The people of Homer's time had looked upon vir- 
tue as physical excellence, — for instance, the beauty of a 
woman or the strength of a man, — and had regarded it sim- 
ply as a gift of the gods; but now virtue was coming to mean 
moral excellence, which could be acquired through effort. 
A man should not permit himself to be blindly swayed by 
passions and the force of circumstances, but should exer- 
cise "self-restraint" and "moderation." These two words 
contain, indeed, the chief commandments which the Greek 
imposed upon himself. In this connection it is worth 
noticing that of all peoples the Greeks were earliest in 
learning to live according to the dictates of their reason, 
and that this great achievement was the outcome of their 
culture. They never would have become fit for freedom 
or able to govern themselves in states, had not each indi- 
vidual striven of his own free will to develop a well-bal- 
anced character. 
Humanity The world was growing more humane. The harsh law 

and peace. q£ ^^j, j^^^ -^^ Homer's time brought death to the con- 
quered; but in the present age the victors usually spared 
their captives, though they reduced them to slavery. 
Neighboring states in earlier times had been constantly at 
war, but were now beginning to make treaties with one 
another so as to dwell together for years in peace. Most 
governments, too, were securing peace within their borders 
P. 47- by establishing courts, as those of Draco at Athens, with 

full power to try and punish offenders. The family as well 
as the state was improving. Formerly men had obtained 



Religion 97 

their wives by capture or purchase, and were in either case 
their owners; but these barbarous customs now died out, 
and women consequently ceased to be the slaves of their 
husbands. At no other time were they socially and intel- 
lectually so nearly equal to men; no other period produced 
a Sappho. 

It was an age of deep religious feeling. Men were so Deepening 
purifying their notions of the gods as to consider them "^^^^sio"- 
morally perfect. A few thinkers, as Xenophanes of Colo- 
phon, became sceptical because they could not believe 
certain stories told of the gods by Homer, stories which 
represented them with all the evil passions and vices of 
men. Others continued to accept the stories but regarded 
them as allegories. Though most men were still untouched 
by scepticism, the old beliefs failed to satisfy their religious 
needs. New forms of worship of deeper meaning were ac- 
cordingly introduced, such as the Orphic mysteries and the 
Eleusinian mysteries. The former came, it was asserted, 
from the Thracian Orpheus, a mythical prophet and musi- 
cian, and centred in the worship of Dionysus. The priests 
of Orpheus travelled throughout Greece making converts and 
initiating them into the mysteries. Those who accepted 
this faith looked forward with hope to a future life, and 
were given power through prayer, as they believed, to raise 
up the souls of others from the agonies of Tartarus.-^ 

The Eleusinian mysteries had their chief seat in sacred Eleusinian 
Eleusis, a city of Attica. They were concerned with the mysteries, 
worship of Demeter, "whose footsteps make red the corn," pind. oiymp. 
and of her daughter Persephone, goddess of the world ^^* 
beneath. The great Eleusinian festival was held in Sep- p. 92. 
tember of each year. All the Athenians, the magistrates 

^ A pit in Hades where men were punished for especial wickedness 
in this world. 

H 



98 



Growth of National Unity 



Holm, i, 
p. 410 f. 



Future life. 



P. 16 f. 



Find. Olymp. 
ii. 



Soothsaying 
and oracles. 



and priests in their official robes, the citizens in their holi- 
day attire, took part in a grand procession along the Sacred 
Way from Athens to Eleusis. There with public cere- 
monies they celebrated Demeter, goddess of agriculture 
and author of their civilizationj and the initiated attended 
in secret to the mystic rites of her service. Among the 
mysteries was a passion play which exhibited the grief of 
Demeter when her daughter was taken from her to Hades 
and the joy of receiving her back. Such, her worshippers 
thought, were the sorrows of death and the joys of reunion 
in the world beyond the grave. All Greeks, men and 
women, slaves and freemen, had equal rights to initiation, 
and thus the Eleusinian worship was a national bond of 
union among the Hellenes. 

Men were gaining a clearer conception of a future life 
with its rewards and punishments; the Elysian fields of 
Pindar were even brighter than those of Homer's day. 
"There round the islands of the blest the ocean breezes 
blow, and. golden flowers are glowing, some from the land 
on trees of splendor, and some the water feedeth, with 
wreaths whereof they entwine their hands. In sunlight 
night and day, the good receive in that new world an un- 
laborious life; those who had pleasure in keeping oaths 
live tearless with the honored of the gods." But "of all 
who die the guilty souls pay penalty; for all the sins sinned 
in this realm of Zeus one judgeth under earth, pronouncing 
sentence by unloved constraint." 

A mark of deepening religion was the growth of soothsay- 
ing and of oracles. Soothsayers professed to discover the 
will of the gods through the flight of birds or from examin- 
ing the entrails of victims offered in sacrifice. But in ques- 
tions of great importance the inquirer sent to an oracle for 
wisdom from heaven. In the venerable shrine of Zeus at 



Oracles 



99 



Dodona in Epeirus men heard the voice of the god in the 
rustling of the oak leaves. But the oracle of Apollo at Oracle of 
Delphi became of far greater historic importance. High up -^P^^'^- 
in a ravine at the southern base of Parnassus, in the midst 




Delphi with Modern Village 

of magnificent and solemn mountain scenery, stood a temple 
of Apollo. Within was a fissure in the earth through which 
volcanic vapor issued inspiring the Pythia, or prophetess 
of Apollo, who sat over it on a tripod. In ecstasy from 
the vapor, she muttered something in reply to questions; 
a priest standing near wrote out her utterance, and gave it 
to the questioner as the word of Zeus delivered to man 
through his son Apollo. "There on the holy tripod sits Euripides, 
the Delphian priestess, chanting to the ears of Hellas in ^^"' ^^ ^^ 
numbers loud, whate'er Apollo doth proclaim." 

This shrine was once merely the centre of a religious Influence of 

the oracle of 



league of neighboring tribes. A council of deputies from 



Apollo, 



100 



Growth of National Unity 



the tribes watched over the interests of the oracle, and 
P. 66. could declare a "sacred war" upon offenders against 

Apollo. Yet little good came from this power, as it was 
generally abused by the stronger members of the league for 
their own selfish ends. The oracle soon extended its infiu- 




Apollo Belvedere 

(Vatican Museum. This statue belongs to the Hellenistic Age, ct. p. 23.) 

ence beyond the league till it came to be national. Apollo 
then became the purifier of guilt for all Hellas, and the 
expounder of religious and of moral law; he even gave his 
sanction to political measures; he watched over the calen- 
dar, and was the guide and patron of colonists. His advice 
was sought by individuals and by states on both private 
and public matters. His fame extended beyond Greece, 
and some foreign nations acknowledged him as their high- 



National Games lOi 

est religious authority. " The institution of temples and Plato, 
sacrifices, and the entire service of the gods, demigods, ^^P^^^^^^ 

/SftT] B. f. 

and heroes, the burial of the dead, and the worship of those 
who dwell in the world below are matters of which we are 
ourselves ignorant, and should be unwise in trusting them 
to any one but to our ancestral deity. He is the god who 
sits in the centre of the earth and is the interpreter of 
religion to all mankind." Those who sought his favor sent 
him presents till his treasuries were full of wealth. The 
Delphic priests, who were the real authors of the oracles, 
kept themselves acquainted with current events that they 
might give intelligent advice; but when necessary to pre- 
serve the credit of Apollo, they offered double-meaning 
prophecies so as to be right in any event. In moral ques- 
tions their influence was usually wholesome, as they pre- 
ferred to advise just and moderate conduct. But sometimes 
the oracle was bribed, sometimes it lent its aid to the 
schemes of politicians, and in the war of independence 
which the Greeks fought against Persia it lost favor by 
being unpatriotic. Notwithstanding all its shortcomings, p. 131. 
it was a bond of union among the Hellenes, for in think- 
ing of Apollo as their common prophet, they thought of 
one another as members of the same great religious society. 

Another institution which helped the Greeks think alike The great 
and act together was the great national games. There were "^*'°"^ 
four of these : held at Olympia, Nemea, on the Isthmus of 
Corinth, and at Delphi, each in honor of the chief god of 
the place. The Olympian games were the most splendid. 
They began in the earliest times as a merely local festival; 
but gradually more distant communities joined in them, 
till all the Hellenes took part, and thus they became na- 
tional. Once in four years a vast number of Greeks from Olympian 
all the shores of the Mediterranean gathered on the banks S^"^^^- 



I02 



Growth of National Unity 



p. Gardner, 
p. 275 f- 



The con- 
tests. 



of the Alpheius in Elis to see the competitions. The 
month in which the games were held was proclaimed a holy 
season, during which all Hellas ought to be at peace with 
itself. The multitude encamped about the sacred enclos- 
ure of Zeus, the great god of Olympia. "Merchants set 
up their booths, and money-changers their tables, all classes 
of artists tried to collect audiences and admirers, crowds 
attended the exercises of the athletes who were in training, 
or admired the practice of the horses and chariots which 

were entered for the 
races. Heralds re- 
cited treaties, mili- 
tary or commercial, 
recently formed be- 
tween Greek cities, 
in order that they 
might be more wide- 
ly known." 

The competitors in 
the games must be 
Greeks of good char- 
acter and religious 
standing and of suf- 
ficient athletic train- 
ing. The judges of 
the games examined 
the qualifications of 
candidates, and at 
the end bestowed the 
wreath of victory. 
There were contests in running, leaping, discus-throwing, 
spear-hurling, wrestling, boxing, and racing of horses 
and chariots. Modern athletic competitions bring home 




Athlete 

(After Lysippus, a contemporary of Alexander the 
Great. Vatican Museum.) 



Influence of the Games 103 

to us in some measure the intense energy of the con- 
testants, the glory of victory, and the irresistible waves 
of enthusiasm in the audience at Olympia. But we 
miss the beautiful bare forms of the Greek athletes, the 
artistic and religious setting of the games — the splendid 
temple and the multitude of statues; we miss, too, the 
Greek sky, the national interest, the historic associations, 
and the grand triumphal music of the Pindaric ode which 
greeted the victor on his stately entrance into his native 
city.^ 

Such contests promoted art. The Greek sculptor drew influence of 
his inspiration from the epic poet's ideals of the gods, but ^ sanies. 
found his best models among the athletes. These great 
national games also fostered commerce, peace, and unity. 
In this age, accordingly, Greece was becoming one in spirit 
and in sympathy; and its people began for the first time 
to call themselves, in distinction from foreigners, by one 
common name — " Hellenes. " ^ 

Sources 

For literature the extant works of the poets themselves, as Hesiod, Reading. 
Tyrtseus, and Pindar; for philosophy, Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the 
Ancient Philosophers ; for the games, Pindar, Odes. 

Modern Authorities 

Curtius, History of Greece, II, bk. ii, ch. iv, the best general treat- 
ment of the entire subject; Holm, History of Greece, I, chs. xix, xxiv; 

^ As this description of the games is intended to be quite general, 
it does not apply in every detail to the period between 700 and 479 B.C. 

2 The Greeks had no common name before the seventh century B.C. 
That they were called Pelasgians and then Achaeans before they were 
called Hellenes is only an assumption of some of the Greeks themselves 
who attempted in an uncritical way to reconstruct their early history. 
The name " Greek " appears to have applied at first to an obscure tribe 
in Epeirus, but was made by the Romans to include the whole Hellenic 
race. 



104 Growth of National Unity 

Abbott, History of Greece, II, ch. i; Grote, History of Greece, IV, chs. 
xxviii, xxix; Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. ii, ch. vi; Mahaffy, 
Survey of Greek Civilization, chs. iii, iv; Social Life in Greece, chs. iv, 
v; History of Greek Literature, I, chs. vii, x-xiii; Jebb, Greek Litera- 
ture (primer), ch. iii; Murray, Ancient Greek Literature, chs. ii, iv; 
Mayor, Ancient Philosophy, pp. i-i6; Marshall, Short History of Greek 
Philosophy, chs. i-v; Tarbell, History of Greek Art, chs. iii-vi; E. A. 
Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, ch. ii. 



I 



CHAPTER VI 

CONQUEST OF ASIATIC GREECE BY THE LYDIANS AND 
THE PERSIANS (560-490 B.C.) 

In the year in which Pisistratus seized the government at Croesus, 

Athens, Croesus became king of Lydia in Asia Minor. 560-546 b.c. 

His country had broad, fertile valleys and an abundance of Hdt. i, 6 ff. 

gold in the sands of its rivers; and though it was wholly 

without a sea-coast, the Lydians traded overland with Asia 

and with Ionia. Already in Croesus' time they had become 

wealthy and refined, so that people began to call them the 

"delicate" Lydians, but still they were excellent knights. 

Croesus' father, Alyattes, had extended his kingdom on all 

sides by subduing his neighbors, -?nd the son now tried to 

outdo his father as a great lord. Croesus admired the Conquest of 

Greeks and wished to have them as willing subjects; but -^^^^^'^ 

^ •" -' Greece, 

as they resisted, he felt compelled to wage war upon 

them. First he attacked Ephesus, one of their largest 

cities; but the Ephesians, finding themselves unable to 

withstand him, dedicated their whole city to the goddess 

Artemis by stretching a rope from their wall to her temple, 

nearly a mile distant. As Croesus respected the Greek 

religion, he stayed the attack and permitted Ephesus to 

enter his empire on favorable terms. In the course of 

time he conquered all the other Greek cities of Asia 

Minor. 

He was aided in his task by the character of the Asiatic Character of 



the Asiatic 
Greeks. 

kinsmen in enterprise and in culture. First epic and then pp, 10, 89. 



Greeks. We have seen how they surpassed their western 



105 



io6 



Conquest of Asiatic Greece 



p. 94. lyric poetry flourished among them. Philosophy and science 

were born in Miletus. The luxuries and refinements of life, 
along with commerce, manufacturing, and the coining of 
money, spread from the Ionian cities westward over Greece. 
But the lonians, though admirable for their many excellent 
qualities, were lacking in political ability. There was 
civil strife within the cities, and almost continual war 
between one state and another. Cities and men had their 
own ideals and pursued their own plans, regardless of the 
interests of the country as a whole. Though united in a 
religious league, the communities rarely acted together, 
and could not think of joining in one strong state. They 
loved complete independence for their towns and enjoyed 
the privilege of making war on their neighbors as the 
diversion of a summer; yet they were a commercial people, 

Hdt. vi, 12 f. not fond of long-continued military service. If the day 
chanced to be warm, they preferred sitting in the shade to 
training for battle in defence of their liberties. Their 
character was their political ruin. It is no wonder that 
they proved inferior to the empires of Asia, based as these 
were on unthinking submission to one all-controlling will. 
But Croesus ruled the Greeks well, as he sought to gain 
their favor and support against the rising power of Persia. 
He stole his way into their affections by making costly 
presents to their gods, especially to Apollo at Delphi. He 
courted the friendship of Lacedaemon, the strongest state 
in Greece, and gave the Spartans gold with which to make 
a statue of Apollo. Under Croesus, Lydia reached its 
height in wealth and power. His treasury was full of gold- 
dust from the sands of the Lydian rivers and of tributes 
from the cities he had conquered; and as he was the 
wealthiest he supposed himself to be the happiest man on 
t '. 27-33- earth. His empire had come to include all Asia Minor 



Croesus 
favors the 
Greeks. 



i • 



Croesus and Cyrus 107 

west of the Halys River; but it was destined soon to become 
a part of the far vaster Persian empire, and the happy 
monarch was doomed to end his life in captivity. 

Croesus had ruled Lydia but two years when Cyrus became Cyrus, king 
king of a small part of Persia, then a province in the Me- °^ Persia, 

. 558-529 B.C. 

dian empire. But Cyrus was too great for these narrow 
limits, and his Persian subjects were as brave and strong as 
mountaineers usually are. "They wore leathern clothing; Hdt. i, 71. 
they ate not the food which they liked, but rather that which 
they could obtain from their rugged country; they drank 
water instead of wine, and had no figs for dessert nor any 
other good thing." Cyrus threw off the Median yoke, rap- 553 ^-c 
idly conquered the Median empire, and made Persia the 
leading state in Asia. Babylonia, Egypt, Lacedaemon, and Hdt. i, 'J^ ff. 
Lydia united against him; but Cyrus was too quick to ^ 
allow his enemies to bring their forces together. He at- 
tacked Croesus first, conquered him, and added the Lydian 
empire to his own.^ 

The lonians, who had favored Croesus in the war, now Cyms and 
begged Cyrus to grant them the same terms of submission ^^^ Greeks, 
which Croesus had given; but Cyrus angrily refused, telling 
the messengers who came to him from them the fable of the 
piper and the fishes. "There was a certain piper," he 
said, "who was walking one day by the seaside, when he 
espied some fish; so he began to pipe to them, imagining 
that they would come out to him upon the land. But as Hdt. i, 141. 
he found at last that his hope was vain, he took a net, and 
enclosing a great draught of fishes, drew them ashore. The 
fish then began to leap and dance; but the piper said, 
* Cease your dancing now, as you did not choose to come 
and dance when I piped to you.' " As the lonians now 

1 Herodotus tells in an interesting story (i, 86 ff.) of Cyrus' treatment 
of the captive Croesus. 



io8 



Conquest of Asiatic Greece 



Hdt. i, 152. 



P. 78 f. 



Hdt. i, 153. 



Cyrus con- 
quers the 
Asiatic 
Greeks. 



P. 94. 



saw that Cyrus would not give them good terms, they began 
to wall their towns, and met in council at the Pan-Ionian 
shrine to concert measures of defence. They first asked 
help of Lacedaemon. When their deputies reached Sparta, 
the one who was to speak dressed himself in a purple robe 
so as to attract as large an audience as possible; and in a 
long speech he besought the Lacedaemonians to come to 
the aid of his countrymen. But it was all in vain; far the 
Spartans liked neither long speeches nor purple robes, and 
they were just then at war with Argos for the possession of 
Cynuria. But they showed their good-will towards their 
Asiatic kinsmen by warning Cyrus on his peril not to harm 
the Hellenic cities, " But when he received this warning 
from the herald, he asked some Greeks who were standing 
by, who these Lacedaemonians were, and what was their 
number, that they dared send him such a notice. When 
he had received their reply, he turned to the Spartan herald 
and said, 'I have never yet been afraid of any men who 
have a set place in the middle of their city, where they 
come together to cheat each other and to perjure them- 
selves. If I live, the Spartans shall have trouble enough of 
their own to talk of, without concerning themselves about 
the lonians. ' Cyrus intended these words as a reproach 
against all the Greeks, because of their having market-places 
where they buy and sell, which is a custom unknown to the 
Persians, who never make purchases in open marts, and 
indeed have not in their whole country a single market- 
place." 

Now while Cyrus' lieutenant, Harpagus, began to batter 
down the Ionian walls, a subject of great importance came 
up in the Pan-Ionian council. It was plain to all thinking 
men that Ionia was suffering from lack of unity. The 
Milesian Thales, father of Greek philosophy, accordingly 



Cyrus Conquers Io7iia 109 

advised the deputies in the council to merge all their cities 
in one, and suggested that that one be Teos because of its 
central location. All the lonians should become citizens 
of Teos and their cities townships in it. They should con- 
tinue to live where they were but should look to Teos as 
their only city. It was in some such way as this that the 
once independent communities of Attica had united to 
make the city of Athens. Had the lonians followed the 
advice of Thales, they might have massed their strength so 
as to maintain their liberties. But the proposal failed, and Political 
one by one the Greek cities of Asia fell into the hands of failure of the 

lonians. 
Harpagus. Some of the inhabitants sailed away to found 

colonies where they could be free, but most of them sub- 
mitted. Bias, an Ionian sage, advised his countrymen to 
migrate all together to Sardinia, but the council rejected 
his plan as well as that of Thales. The majority preferred Hdt. i, 170. 
political slavery to the hardships of migration and settle- 
ment in a distant land; and thus the Pan-Ionian council 
failed pitiably in its duty to the cities which it represented. 
Disunion robbed the Asiatic Greeks of their liberty, and 
greatly narrowed the limits of free Hellas on the east. The 
islanders, terror-stricken, sent in their submission. And 
the Asiatic Dorians behaved no better than the other 
Greeks. During the war in Ionia, the Dorians of Cnidus 
were busy in cutting off their peninsula by a channel from 
the mainland. Many of the workmen while thus engaged 
were injured in the eyes from breaking rock. On consult- 
ing the oracle at Delphi as to the cause of the misfortune, 
they received the following advice : — 

Fence not the place with towers, nor dig the isthmus through; j^^^ j 

Zeus would have made your land an island had he wanted so to do. 

This was all the encouragement Apollo gave to the cause 
of Greek freedom. The men of Cnidus then ceased from 



no 



Conquest of Asiatic Greece 



The Persian 

yoke 

oppressive. 



Darius, 
522-485 B.C. 



514 B.C. 
Hdt. iv, 87. 



The tyrants 
at the bridge. 

Hdt.iv, I36ff. 
P. 76 f. 



the work and submitted to Harpagus without an effort to 
resist. 

The Persian yoke was far more oppressive than the 
Lydian had been. The Persians, because they worshipped 
but one god/ felt no respect for the Greek religion with its 
multitude of deities. Many Greek cities of Asia Minor 
were already under the rule of tyrants; but Cyrus now set 
up tyrannies in those which were still republics. And as 
the tyrant depended upon the Persian king for his support, 
it was for his own interest to hold the city over which he 
ruled in subjection to his master. The Greeks had merely 
paid tribute to Croesus, but were now required in addition 
to perform military service. Thus Cambyses, son and suc- 
cessor of Cyrus, compelled them to help him conquer Egypt. 
Darius, who succeeded Cambyses and founded a new ruling 
family, reorganized the Persian empire. He divided it 
into satrapies, or provinces, each under a governor, termed 
satrap, and imposed upon each satrapy a fixed annual trib- 
ute. In this way he made the yoke of servitude heavier 
than before. Then he led a great army into Europe against 
the Scythians, a people who roamed about in the country 
north of the Danube and the Black Sea. He required the 
Asiatic Greeks to furnish for this expedition six hundred 
ships led by their tyrants. It was galling to the Greeks to 
perform such compulsory service, as they felt it a shame to 
be slaves to the Persians while their western kinsmen were 
free. Even some of the tyrants, voicing the spirit of their 
subjects, proposed to cut off Darius' return from Scythia by 
breaking up the bridge of boats across the Danube, which 
they had in their keeping. The Athenian Miltiades, ruler 
of Chersonese, favored the plan; but Histiseus, despot of 



^ They considered the god whom they worshipped good, and ac- 
knowledged in addition the existence of a principle or spirit of evil. 



The lojtic Revolt in 

Miletus, persuaded the tyrants that the people would depose 
them if they should lose the support of the Persian king, 
and in this manner he led them to vote against the pro- 
posal. 

Histiaeus received in recognition of his loyalty an invita- The ionic 
tion to spend the rest of his days at the court of Darius in ' « ^ 

^ -' 499-494 1^-C. 

Susa, the Persian capital. To the Greek despot this meant Hdt.v, 11-25. 
nothing but exile, yet he must obey. His son-in-law, Aris- Aristagoras. 
tagoras, succeeded him as ruler of Miletus. The spirit of 
revolt was growing among the Greeks; and Aristagoras, 
though unprincipled and incapable, was ready to lead them 
in a struggle for freedom. However, it was partly fear for 
his own safety which induced him to take this step; for he 
had promised the Persians to conquer Naxos, and had re- 
ceived help from them on this assurance, but he had failed 
in his attempt and now felt that he was liable to be punished 
for not keeping his word. Should he not save himself by 
hurrying on a revolt which he knew was threatening? His- 
tiseus, still an unwilling guest at the court of Darius, in a 
secret despatch encouraged him in his plan. According 
to Herodotus, Histiaeus " could find but one safe way, as 
the roads were guarded, of making his wishes known; 
which was by taking the trustiest of his slaves, shaving all 
the hair from off his head, and then pricking letters upon 
the skin, and waiting till the hair grew again. Thus, ac- Hdt. v, 35. 
cordingly, he did; and as soon as ever the hair was grown, 
he despatched the man to Miletus, giving him no other 
message than this — * When thou art come to Miletus, bid 
Aristagoras shave thy head, and look thereon.' " ^ All the 
tyrant's friends urged him to the revolt except Hecataeus. 
He was the earliest Greek geographer and historian. As 
he had travelled over the Persian empire and knew its great 

^ This and many other anecdotes told by Herodotus seem improbable. 



112 



Cojtquest of Asiatic Greece 



the revolt, 
499 B.C. 



Aristagoras 
at Sparta, 
499-498 B.C. 



Hdt. V, 49. 



resources, he believed that the Greeks could not hope for 
Beginning of success in the war. But Aristagoras decided to revolt, and 
resigned his tyranny, giving Miletus a democratic govern- 
ment. He then helped depose the despots of the neighbor- 
ing cities, and in a few weeks all Ionia followed him in 
rebellion against Darius. 

Aristagoras spent the next winter in looking about for 
allies. First he went to Sparta and addressed King Cle- 
omenes as follows: "That the sons of the lonians should 
be slaves instead of free is a reproach and grief most of all 
indeed for ourselves, but of all others most to you, inas- 
much as ye are the leaders of Hellas. Now, therefore, I 
entreat you by the gods of Hellas to rescue from slavery the 
lonians, who are your own kinsmen: and ye may easily 
achieve this, for the foreigners are not valiant in fight, 
whereas ye have attained to the highest point of valor in 
war: and their fighting is of this fashion, namely, with 
bows and arrows and a short spear, and they go into battle 
wearing trousers and with caps on their heads. Thus they 
may easily be conquered. Then, again, they who occupy 
that continent have good things in such quantities as not 
all the other nations in the world possess; first gold, then 
silver and bronze and embroidered garments and beasts of 
burden and slaves; all which ye might have for yourselves 
if ye so desired."^ 

Aristagoras then proceeded to indicate the location of 
the various Asiatic nations on a map traced on a plate of 
bronze, the work probably of Hecataeus, the first the Spartans 
had ever seen. He tried to show how easily the Lacedae- 
monians could conquer the whole Persian empire. "How 
long a journey is it from the Ionian coast to the Persian 

1 This speech gives a truthful summary of the facts except in one 
particular, — the Persians were not cowardly. 



Cleomenes 
refuses help. 



A ristagoras 113 

capital? " Cleomenes asked. "A three months' journey," 
Aristagoras answered incautiously. '* Guest- Friend from 
Miletus," the Spartan king interrupted, "get thee away from 
Sparta before the sun has set; for thou speakest a word 
which sounds not well in the ears of the Lacedaemonians, 
desiring to take them on a journey of three months from the 
sea." Cleomenes was an able and ambitious ruler, and 
might have gone to the aid of the Asiatic Greeks; but he 
imagined Aristagoras a deposed tyrant seeking selfishly his 
own restoration to power. The oily-tongued Ionian then 
tried to win him with a bribe, but was frustrated by the 
king's daughter, Gorgo, a child of eight or nine years of 
age, who exclaimed, " Father, the stranger will harm thee, 
if thou do not leave him and go ! " 

Aristagoras then went to Athens, where he found his task Aristagoras 
easier. The Athenians were near kinsmen of the lonians ^^ Athens. 
and in close commercial relations with them ; they were Hdt. v. 97. 
flattered, too, because Aristagoras spoke of Athens as the 
mother city of the many wealthy communities of Ionia. 
Further, it was Athens, not Sparta, that had suffered by the 
westward advance of Persia, for the Scythian expedition 
of Darius had robbed her of both Sigeium and Chersonese. 
And recently Artaphernes, governor of Sardis, had ordered Pp. 80, 85 f. 
the Athenians to take back Hippias as their tyrant, if they 
wished to escape destruction. They had refused, and felt, 
in consequence, that a state of war now existed between 
them and Persia. They therefore sent twenty ships to help 
the lonians, and their neighbor, Eretria, through friend- 
ship for Miletus, sent five. 

The allies captured and burned Sardis, but could not Burning of 
take the citadel. Then, as they were on their way back to Sardis. 
Ionia, the Persians attacked and defeated them near Ephe- 
sus. This so thoroughly discouraged the Athenians that 
I 



114 Conquest of Asiatic Greece 

they returned home and would give no more help. The 
fact is that Hippias had many friends among the Athe- 
nians, who were anxious to avoid further trouble with Per- 
sia by recalling the tyrant and restoring him to power. It 
was this party which now gained the upper hand and pre- 
vented Athens from giving any more assistance to the 
lonians. 
Battle at The burning of Sardis encouraged the rest of the Asiatic 

a e, 497 B.C. Qj.gg]^g ^q jqj^^ jj^ ^-j^g revolt, but at the same time stirred 

Darius to greater exertions for putting it down, and angered 
him especially against Athens and Eretria. The decisive 
battle of the war was fought at Lade, off Miletus. The 
Greeks had three hundred and fifty-three ships; the Phoe- 
nicians in the service of Persia had six hundred. Yet the 

Hdt.vi, Greeks would certainly have won the day, if they had 

^'^~'^T' shown the right spirit; but they were disunited and insub- 

ordinate, and allowed themselves to be influenced by secret 
agents from the enemy. At the very opening of the battle, 
many ships treacherously sailed away, and though a few 
remained and fought bravely, the battle was lost. The 
Asiatic Greeks at Lade proved incapable of self-govern- 
ment. United resistance was now at an end, and the sepa- 
rate states were subdued one by one or surrendered to avoid 

Capture of attack. The Persians brought the war to a close by the 
capture of Miletus after a siege of four years. They plun- 
dered and burned the city together with its temples, and 
carried the people into captivity; and thus they blotted out 
of existence the fairest city of Hellas, the city which up to 
this time had done most in building up European civiliza- 
tion. Though it was again inhabited by Greeks, it never 

Hdt. vi, 42. regained its former splendor. The Persian governor at 
Sardis now compelled the Greek communities to live at 
peace with each other, and to settle their disputes by arbi- 



Miletus 

494 B.C 



Europe and Asia at War 115 

tration. They recovered much of their prosperity; but 
with the suppression of their liberties, they ceased to con- 
tribute to the civilization of the world. The intellect, Pp. 9 f., 105 f. 
spirit, and morals of the lonians so degenerated under 
bondage that the Athenians, a half century later, were 
ashamed to call them kinsmen. 

The Athenians were intensely interested in the fortunes Phrynichus 
of the war, as their own safety seemed to depend upon the "^ ' 
success of the Greeks, and the fall of Miletus filled them 
with grief and fear. Phrynichus of Athens, soon after this 
event, composed a drama. The Capture of Miletus. But 
when it was put on the stage, " the spectators fell to weeping, Hdt. vi, 21. 
and the Athenians fined the poet a thousand drachmas for 
reminding them of their own calamities; and they ordered 
that no one in the future should represent this drama." 

The fall of Miletus was indeed an evil omen to Europe; Europe and 
for in the fifteen years which followed this misfortune, -^^'^ ^^ ^^'^^• 
Greek civilization came into great danger from Persia on 
the east and from Carthage, an African colony of the Phoe- 
nicians, on the west. In these years, the forty-six nations 
which composed the Persian empire poured their motley 
soldiery into continental Greece, while Carthage with a 
stupendous army tried to overwhelm Sicily. And it was no 
contest with mere barbarians which the Greeks had to wage 
in defence of their liberty; for the Phoenicians and the 
Persians were in many ways on a level with them. But 
their civilizations were totally different. The whole life of Europe and 

the Greek rested upon the political, social, and religious free- ^^^^ 

contrasted, 
dom of the individual, while that of the Asiatics depended 

on slavish obedience to authority, — the authority of priests 

and king. The Greeks were no braver than the Persians; 

but their freedom gave them spirit, and their intelligence 

provided them with superior arms, organization, and training. 



ii6 



Conquest of Asiatic Greece 



Atossa. Is then the bow-drawing arrow the chief weapon in their 
hands? 

Chorus. By no means; lances used in close fight, and the accoutre- 
ments of shield-bearers. 

Atossa. And who is set over them as a shepherd of the flock, and is 
the master of the army? 

Chorus. They call themselves the slaves of no man, nor the subjects 
either.i 



Persian 
aggressions. 



iiEsch. Pers. 
I02 fif. 



Miltiades. 
P. no. 
Hdt. vi, 41. 



For these reasons the Greeks, though few, met and defeated 
by land and sea the largest armaments the world had yet 
known. 

From the beginning of her supremacy, Persia had fol- 
lowed a policy of conquest. " For of old fate went against 
the Persians by the decrees of heaven, and put it into their 
minds to engage in wars for the storming of fortresses, in 
the turmoil of cavalry actions, and in the overthrow of 
cities." Cyrus had added the Lydian empire to the Persian 
on the west; and Darius had followed up this conquest by 
invading Europe. On his return he left Megabazus in 
Europe in command of a strong force. This general con- 
quered Thrace, received the submission of Macedon, and 
thus brought the Persian empire to the border of Thessaly. 
After suppressing the Ionian revolt, the Persians immedi- 
ately carried the war across the Hellespont; for their Euro- 
pean provinces had also rebelled. As the Phoenician fleet 
approached Chersonese, Miltiades fled with five triremes 
carrying his immense wealth. The Phoenicians pursued 
him so hotly that they took one of these, but with the others 
he entered the Athenian port. Yet for a time he found no 
safety even in his native city; for some suspected him 
because he was himself a tyrant and a descendant of the 

1 From y^schylus' Persians, an historical drama on the battle of 
Salamis. The Chorus, representing the royal council of Persia, is talk- 
ing about the Greeks to Atossa, mother of Xerxes, the Persian king. 



^; 



Miltiades and Theviistocles 



117 



tyrannic Cypselidse of Corinth, and furthermore he had 
been a friend of the Pisistratidse and a vassal of the Per- 
sian king. A leader of the party which upheld the re- 
public immediately prosecuted him for his tyranny in 
Chersonese, but as the Athenians knew that he hated Persia 
and was an able and experienced general, they acquitted Themis- 
him, for they felt that they should need his service in t°^i*^s- 
the approaching war. 
The republican party, 
however, looked not 
to him but to The- 
mistocles, a man of 
wonderful energy and 
intelligence, as its 
leader, whom it elect- 
ed Archon for the year 
493 B.C. He occupied 
his term of office in 
improving the triple 
harbor of Peirseus. 
Heretofore the Athe- 
nians had used as a 
harbor the open road- 
stead of Phalerum, but 
now Themistocles dis- 
covered the great value 
of Peiraeus. He be- 
lieved that war with 

Persia could not be avoided, and intended that Athens 
should have a navy-yard and a powerful fleet; for it would 
be necessary to meet, not only the Persians on land, but also 
the combined fleets of Phoenicia and Asiatic Greece on 
the sea. 




"Themistocles" 

(Vatican Museum.) 



ii8 



Conquest of Asiatic Greece 



Mardonius' 
invasion, 
493 B-C. 



" Earth and 
water." 



Condition of 
Greece. 



While Themistocles was busy with his harbor, Mardonius, 
son-in-law of Darius, was marching through Thrace at the 
head of a large army, accompanied by a fleet along the 
shore. In rounding Mt. Athos the ships were wrecked, and 
at the same time his troops were slaughtered by the natives. 
Mardonius expected to conquer all continental Greece, but 
only retook Thrace and Macedon. The failure of his en- 
terprise brought him into disgrace at the Persian court. 

Darius now made ready another expedition, having in 
the meantime sent heralds among those Greek communities 
which were still free, to demand "earth and water," the 
tokens of submission. There was no need, Darius thought, 
of attacking Jhose who would willingly submit. The Athe- 
nians, however, threw the king's herald into a pit, and the 
Spartans dropped the one who came to them into a well — 
bidding them take earth and water thence to their lord. 
They who advised this must have wished to remove even 
the possibility of reconciliation with Persia; for the Athe- 
nians and Spartans by mistreating the heralds violated the 
law of nations and placed themselves beyond the pale of 
the great king's grace. 

Greece was at a great disadvantage in the war with Per- 
sia because her states could not bring themselves to act 
together. Many of them immediately yielded through 
fear, ^gina sent earth and water out of enmity to Athens, 
while Argos, through jealousy of Sparta, might have aided 
the invader, had she not been crippled by the Lacedaemo- 
nians in a recent war. Within the Peloponnesian League 
alone was unity. In the face of common danger, men 
began for the first time to talk of obligations of loyalty to 
Greece, and to recognize Sparta as an authority with legal 
power to enforce loyal conduct. In this manner the patri- 
ots created in their imagination an ideal Hellas united and 



Condition of Greece 119 

free, looking to Sparta as leader. In this spirit Athens 
accused ^gina of treason in submitting to Persia, and 
brought the charge formally before Sparta, whose king, 
Cleomenes, recognized the duty of his city to Greece by Hdt. vi, 49 f 
punishing the offenders. Sparta, alone of all the Greek 
cities, thus far had shown a genius for organization and 
command; and it was with perfect justice therefore that 
all looked to her in this crisis as the head of Greece. 

Sources 

Herodotus, bks. i-vi. Reading. 

Modern Authorities 

Holm, History of Greece, I, ch. xxiii, II, ch. i; Abbott, History of 
Greece, II, ch. i; Holm and Abbott are especially good for this period; 
Oman, History of Greece, chs. xiii, xv; Allcroft and Masom, Early 
Grecian History, ch. xvi; Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. iii, ch. 1; 
Curtius, History of Greece, II, bk. ii, ch. v; Grote, History of Greece^ 
IV, chs. xxxii-xxxv; Cox, Greeks and Persians, chs. iii-v. 




Marathon 



CHAPTER VII 



THE WAR WITH PERSIA AND CARTHAGE (490-479 B.C.) 



Invasion of 
Datis and 
Artaphernes. 



P. 113. 



Betrayal of 
Eretria. 



In the summer of 490 b.c. the Persian armament, which 
had long been preparing, moved westward across the 
^^gean, receiving the submission of the islanders on the 
way. It consisted of six hundred ships carrying an army 
of perhaps sixty thousand men. Datis, a Mede, and Arta- 
phernes, a kinsman of Darius, were in command. Their 
object was to punish Athens and Eretria for helping the 
Ionian revolt, and to conquer whatever territory they could 
for their lord. 

As the Persians came near, the Eretrians were in doubt 
as to what they should do. Some proposed to surrender, 
and others to flee to the mountains; but finally they decided 
to await an attack on their walls. After a brave defence of 



120 



Battle of Marathon I2I 

six days, they were betrayed by two of their fellow-citizens. 
There were such traitors in every Greek city. 

Eretrian fugitives filled Athens with the disheartening pheidip- 
news. Forthwith the Athenian government mobilized its Pides. 
entire military force, and despatched Pheidippides, a swift 
long-distance runner, to Sparta to ask help. "Over the 
hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks " ^ he ran 
his race of a hundred and fifty miles, and reached Sparta 
the day after starting. "Men of Lacedsemon," he said to 
the authorities, "the Athenians beseech you to hasten to 
their aid, and not allow that state which is the most an- 
cient in all Greece to be enslaved by the barbarians. 
Eretria, look you, is already carried away captive, and Hdt. vi, io6. 
Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city." The Lace- 
daemonians, though they wished to help the Athenians, had 
to wait several days before setting out, as a law forbade 
them to go to war in any month before the full moon.^ 

After sacking Eretria, the Persians, under the guidance Batde of 
of the aged Hippias, landed at Marathon. The Athenian ^^-'^'athon. 
army, led by the polemarch and ten generals, went to meet 
them. While the polemarch had the nominal command. Pp. 76, 83. 
Miltiades was the real leader, and he of all the generals 
deserves most credit for the victory. Though heavy-armed, 
the Athenians charged on the enemy at a double-quick 
march, so anxious were they to reach the Persians with their 
spears and avoid the showers of arrows. The Persians, P. 115. 
who were unprepared for fighting hand to hand, were com- 
pelled to retire to their ships with great loss. The Athe- 

1 Browning, Pheidippides, a poem from the standpoint of an 
Athenian of the second or third generation after the battle of Mara- 
thon, when enmity had arisen between Athens and Sparta. 

2 So at least Herodotus says, and there seems to be no good reason 
for doubting him. Religious scruples often led the Greeks to act con- 
trary to their wishes. 



122 The War zvith Persia and Carthage 



Hdt. vi, 112, 



Pp.iiSf. 



Demosth.Z)^ 
Corona, 208. 



Miltiades 
fined. 



Hdt.vi. 
132-136. 



niaiis "were the first of the Hellenes, so far as we know, 
who attacked the enemy at a run, and they were the first 
to face the Median gai'inents and the men who wore them, 
whereas up to this time the very name of the Medes was 

to the Hellenes a terror to hear." 
They gained this great victory prac- 
tically by themselves; for the Platse- 
ans alone of their neighbors had come 
to their aid. The Lacedaemonians, 
starting after the full moon, reached 
Athens by a forced march, yet too 
late to be of service. The westward 
progress of Asiatic government and 
civilization which threatened Europe 
suffered its first check at Marathon. 
The Athenians broke the spell of the 
Persian name; for they bravely faced 
perhaps six times their number and 
proved once for all the superiority of 
Greek over Oriental. The victory 
filled the Athenians with self-confi- 
dence and made them aggressive. 
Within a day their stature had grown 
heroic, and the memories of that day 
inspired them thereafter* to brave 
danger in the forefront of Hellas. 

Miltiades now stood at the summit 
of fame. He thought the present 
moment favorable for building up 
the Athenian power and wealth at the 
expense of the islanders who had sided with the king. 
So he planned an expedition against Paros, and asked 
the Athenians for ships and men, promising to make 




The Warrior of 
Marathon " 



E7id of Miltiades 123 

them rich but not telling them just what he intended 
to do. He sailed with his fleet to Paros and demanded 
a contribution of a hundred talents. As the Parians 
refused to pay anything, he besieged them without effect 
for nearly a month, and then returned wounded to Athens, 
to disappoint the hopes of all. His enemies found in P. 116. 
his failure another opportunity to assail him. Xanthip- 
pus, leader of the republican party, prosecuted him for 
having deceived the people. The penalty would have 
been death; but because of Miltiades' great services to the 
state, it was lightened to a fine of fifty talents. Miltiades 
died of his wound, and the fine was paid by his son Cimon. 

It is difficult to divide fairly the blame for the unhappy who was at 
event between Miltiades and the Athenians. Had he sue- ^^"^* ^ 
ceeded in exacting his contribution or in adding Paros to 
the Athenian state, his fellow-citizens would probably have 
commended him for the act instead of prosecuting him. 
The failure rather than the character of the enterprise 
wounded their feelings. It was a defect, too, of their gov- 
ernment that the assembly had to be consulted on questions 
of foreign policy; and any one who did not conform to the 
rule was supposed to have some evil plot in mind. On the 
other hand, Miltiades, accustomed only to be a lord over 
others, was dangerous to the republic; and in his Parian 
expedition he had insulted the spirit of the free constitu- 
tion by not taking the people into his confidence. And as 
to the charge of ingratitude brought against the Athenians 
for their conduct on this occasion, it is to be remembered 
that not Miltiades, but the Athenians, won the battle of 
Marathon. 

The Athenian government had for some years been strug- Party strug- 
gling to maintain itself against tyrants and oligarchs. The ^^^' 
victory at Marathon, which decided that Hippias should 



124 



The War with Persia and Carthage 



Arist. Ath. 
Const. 22. 

487 B.C. 



Aristeides 
and Themis- 
tocles. 



not return, was a triumph for the republicans. They 
thought, too, that in condemning Miltiades they had made 
another gain. They now followed up these successes by a 
fierce political war upon the tyrant's party, lasting three 
years. Each year they ostracized a leader of that party; 
and by disorganizing it in this way, they delivered Athens 
from all fear of a relapse into despotism. In the mean- 
time the Athenians made their government more democratic 
by passing an act which provided that the nine archons, 
instead of being elected as heretofore, should be drawn by 
lot from nominees presented by the townships. Hence- 
forth, from the fact that the incapable man had as good a 
chance for the archonship as the capable, it ceased to be 
the chief office of the state; and as the Council of the 
Areopagus was made up of ex-archons, that began also from 
this time to decline. Finally, as the archonship and the 
Council of the Areopagus were both aristocratic institu- 
tions, any decrease in their importance left the government 
more democratic. The ten generals now took the place of 
the nine archons as the most influential magistrates of the 
state. The republicans split on this issue into two parties: 
the conservatives, who opposed changing the constitution, 
and the democrats, who favored it. 

Aristeides and Themistocles were now the most eminent 
men in Athens. Their characters have been distorted by 
partisan prejudice and still more by shallow rhetoricians 
who wrote about them in later time. These authors sought 
everywhere for brilliant contrasts, and took delight in 
thinking of Aristeides and Themistocles as opposites 
because of some political rivalry. Because Aristeides was 
known as the just and the honest, Themistocles, they imag- 
ined, must have been the unjust and the dishonest. Be- 
cause Themistocles was a reformer, Aristeides must have 



Aristeides and Themistocles 125 

been a conservative. All this is superficial. Both were Plutarch, 
builders of a new asre : Aristeides made the government ^^"^^^^^-^ 

and Themts- 

more democratic, Themistocles created Peiraeus and the todes. 
navy. Both men were praised by their friends as just in 
private relations; both were denounced by their enemies as 
unscrupulous and corrupt in public life. But Themistocles, 
though he had many enemies, was never tried for anything 
but treason, and even then he was acquitted, while Aristei- 
des was once fined for embezzlement. Aristeides is rep- 
resented as saying that both he and Themistocles were 
dangerous to the state; and while he was in exile, the 
Athenians feared that he would go over to the Persians, so 
little faith had they in his patriotism. His friends, on the 
other hand, gave him the title of "the Just." The histo- Genius of 

rian who sifts the evidence carefully must come to the con- themis- 
tocles. 
elusion that these two statesmen were very much alike in 

moral character, though Themistocles had the most brilliant Thuc i, 138. 
genius of all the Greeks down at least to his own day. A 
great man is, to some extent, the product of his time; and 
we cannot think of a Themistocles without a free people 
struggling against forces which seem overwhelming. On 
the other hand, great men have their influence; so Themis- 
tocles, through his own will and genius, discovering the 
capabilities of the Athenians, turned their history into the 
channel through which it flowed as long as they remained 
free. 

The state was weak for lack of money, and there was little Ostracism of 
hope of improvement in this respect, for nearly every one ^^^^^^'^^s, 
supposed that the government should support the people 
rather than be supported by them. Fortunately, consider- 
able revenues were coming into the treasury from the silver 
mines of Laureium, in southeastern Attica. But some one, 
probably Aristeides, now proposed to divide the money 



126 The War with Persia and Carthage 

Pp. 83, 124. from this source among the citizens. Themistocles, by 
opposing the measure, came into a conflict with Aristeides, 
which resulted in the ostracism of the latter. While the 
citizens were voting the ostracism, it is said that an illiter- 
ate peasant, who did not even know the great men of Athens 
by sight, approached Aristeides, and had the following talk 
with him : — 



Plut. AriS' 
teides. 



Themis- 
tocles' 
Naval De- 
cree, 482 B.C. 



Hdt. vii, 144 ; 

Arist. Ath. 
Const. 22. 



Xerxes pre- 
pares for an 
invasion of 
Greece. 



Peasant. Take my ostrakon, good sir, and write a name on it for me. 
Aristeides. What name, pray, shall I write ? 
Peasant. Aristeides. 

Aristeides. "Why, what harm has he done you? 

Peasant. None at all. I do not even know him, but I am tired of 
hearing him called the Just. 

Perhaps the peasant envied Aristeides' good name; or 
he may have believed that there were hundreds of Athe- 
nians as just and as honest as either of their leaders. 

On the motion of Themistocles, the council and the as- 
sembly then decreed that the revenues from the mines 
should be used for building triremes. Their immediate 
motive was the war which they were still waging, without suc- 
cess, against ^gina; but Themistocles foresaw the danger 
still to come from Persia, for Xerxes, son and successor of 
Darius, was nearly ready for another invasion of Greece. 
He saw too, no doubt, that his decree would give Athens 
the strongest navy in the world. The Athenians began im- 
mediately to build triremes, so that they had two hundred 
ready when the enemy came. We shall see how they used 
these ships in the battle of Salamis to defend Europe against 
Asia; and how, when the war was over, they acquired a great 
maritime empire. 

In the meantime, Xerxes was preparing for the conquest 
of Greece. For four years he gathered his resources, stor- 
ing provisions along the proposed route and collecting 



Xerxes prepares for War 1 27 

troops from every part of the empire. In the spring of 
481 B.C., the nations he ruled were pouring their contin- 
gents into Asia Minor, and the autumn of the year found p. 115. 
him with his vast host encamped for the winter at Sardis. 
His engineers were engaged in bridging the Hellespont 
with boats and in digging a canal through the Isthmus of 
Athos, that the fleet might not be compelled to round the 
dangerous cape. Herodotus estimates the total land force Hdt. vH, 61- 
at a million seven hundred thousand men; but this is ^°°* 
doubtless a great exaggeration. Xerxes had, apparently, 
three hundred thousand serviceable troops, while the rest 
were merely for display. On the sea were about twelve 
hundred ships of war, manned by Greeks, Phoenicians, and 
Egyptians. The invasion was indeed to bring Greece into 
great peril; for the battle of Marathon had not decided the 
war with Persia, and Xerxes still hoped to win by sheer 
force of numbers. 

While Xerxes was in camp at Sardis, his messengers came Union of 
to the Greek states demanding earth and water, and re- ^°^^^ Greeks, 
ceived these tokens of submission from many of them. 
But none came to Athens and Sparta, as these were to be Hdt.vii,i32£ 
punished for their treatment of Darius' heralds. A council p. ns. 
of the loyal states met on the Isthmus to plan for the defence 
of Greece. This union was practically an enlargement of 
the Peloponnesian League under the leadership of Sparta. 
The states represented in the council agreed under oath to 
wage war in common for the protection of their liberties, 
and on the return of peace to dedicate to the Delphian 
Apollo a tenth of the property of those Hellenic states which 
had voluntarily yielded to the enemy. They also recon- Hdt. vii, 145. 
ciled their enmities with one another, and sent spies to 
Sardis and envoys to the other Greek states to secure their 
accession to the League. Xerxes, capturing the spies, 



128 



The War with Persia and Carthage 



p. Ii8. 



Hdt. vii, 165. 



Battle of 
Thermopy- 
lae, 480 B.C. 



showed them politely around his camp and sent them home 
unharmed. The envoys to the Greek states were less suc- 
cessful. Argos, through hostility to Sparta, held aloof from 
the union and no doubt prayed for the success of the Per- 
sians. The Corcyraeans promised their navy, but lingered 
selfishly on the way till the war was decided. Gelon, tyrant 
of Syracuse, was requested to give help; but he was busy 
preparing to meet a Carthaginian invasion. 

The plan of the allies was to build a wall across the Isth- 
mus of Corinth and to make their main defence there. It 
was a narrow, Peloponnesian policy, directed by the Lace- 



Hdt. vii, 
172-174. 

P. 61. 




£ormay & Cj.,N. T. 



dsemonian ephors. As Xerxes approached the Hellespont 
in the spring of 480 B.C., the allies made a feeble, fruitless 
attempt to defend Thessaly against him by posting an army 
in the vale of Tempe. On the withdrawal of this army, 
the Thessalians went over to the enemy. To prevent cen- 
tral Greece from following their example, the ephors sent 
King Leonidas with three hundred heavy-armed Spartans 
and a few thousand allies to hold the pass of Thermopylae, 
and thus shut Xerxes out from central Greece. They pro- 



Battle of Thermopylcg 



129 



fessed to believe that he could hold the pass till the Olym- 
pic games and their own festival of the Carneia were over. 
Then, they said, they would take the field in full force. Hdt. vii, 202, 
The fleet, comprising the contingents of the various cities ^°^* 
of the League, sailed to 
Artemisium to cooperate 
with the land force at Ther- 
mopylae. Each contingent 
was under its own admiral, 
and the whole fleet was com- 
manded by the Spartan Eury- 
biades. 

The Persians failed to 
carry Leonidas' position by 
assault, for their numbers did 
not count in the narrow pass. 
The discipline of the 
Greeks, their strong defen- 
sive armor, and their long 
spears might have held the 
hordes of Xerxes in check for 
an indefinite time, had not 
the Persians gained the rear 
of the pass through the 
treachery of a Greek. Most 
of the allies then withdrew; 
but Leonidas with his three 
hundred Spartans and a few 
allies remained and prepared 

for a death struggle. The contrast between the Greeks 
and the Orientals was at its height at Thermopylae : on the 
one side, the Persian officers scourged their men to battle; 
on the other, the Spartans voluntarily faced certain death 




The Three 

Hundred 

Spartans. 



P. 115. 



A Persian Archer 



K 



130 TJie War with Persia and Cai'thage 

Pp. 57 ff. in obedience to law. " The Lacedaemonians are the 
best of all men when fighting in a body; for though free, 
yet they are not free in all things, since over them is set 
Hdt. vii, 104, law as a master. They certainly do whatever that master 
223, 228. commands] and he always bids them not flee in battle from 

any multitude of men, but stay at their post, and win the 
victory or lose their lives." The dead were buried where 
they fell, and the poet Simonides, some say, composed this 
epitaph for the three hundred : " Stranger, tell the Lacedae- 
monians that we lie here in obedience to their laws." The 
Spartans were slain but not conquered. The battle of 
Thermopylae ought to have been considered a victory for 
the Greeks, but in the general discouragement it only made 
matters worse. The admirals at Artemisium, though they 
met with some success, resolved to retreat even before hear- 
ing of the capture of Thermopylae. 
Many states Xerxes was now moving through central Greece towards 
Medize. Athens. Nearly all of the states west of Attica submitted 

and sent their troops to reenforce his army. The men of 
Delphi, according to their own account, hid the treasures 
Hdt. viii, of Apollo in a cave and prepared to resist the Persian corps 
35 ff- which had come to pillage their temple; then some god 

aided them by bringing a thunder-storm and hurling great 
crags down Mount Parnassus upon the advancing enemy. 
In this way, they said, Apollo defended his holy shrine. 
However, as the Delphian priests had on former occasions 
favored foreigners in preference to Greeks and had given 
their countrymen no encouragement in the present war, it 
P. loi. seems not unlikely that they made their peace with Xerxes 

and afterwards invented the story of the supernatural de- 
fence to cover their want of patriotism. 
Greek fleet at The Greek fleet paused at Salamis to help the Athenians 
Saiamis. remove their families and property to places of safety. 



Apollo Disloyal 131 

This was their last resource, as the Peloponnesians were 
bent on defending only Peloponnese. Indeed, the other 
admirals wanted to hurry on to the Isthmus; but Themis- 
tocles would not go with his contingent, and the others felt 
that they could not afford to lose it. Themistocles on en- 
tering his city found it in despair. Some time before 




Bay of Salamis 

this the Athenians had sent to consult the Delphic oracle Apollo dis- 
with respect to the approaching war, and a dreadful answer ^^JJ^^s^s 
had come foretelling utter ruin. The Athenian messengers 
besought a more favorable reply, saying they would remain 
in the shrine till their death if it were not granted. Then 
the god grew merciful and gave a little hope : — 

Pallas has not been able to soften the lord of Olympus, 
Though she has often prayed him, and urged him with excellent counsel. 
Yet once more I address thee in words than adamant firmer : 
When the foe shall have taken whatever the limit of Cecrops 



132 The War with Persia and Carthage 

Holds within it, and all which divine Cithoeron shelters, 
Hdt. vii, 141. Then far-seeing Jove grants this to the prayers of Athena, — 
Safe shall the wooden wall continue for thee and thy children. 
Wait not the tramp of the horse, nor the footman mightily moving 
Over the land, but turn your back to the foe, and retire ye. 
Yet shall a day arrive when ye shall meet him in battle. 
Holy Salamis, thou shalt destroy the offspring of women, 
"When men scatter the seed, or when they gather the harvest. 

Themistocles Some thought that the " wooden wall " was the fence about 
compels the ^^ Acropolis : but Themistocles said no, it meant the ships, 

Greeks to r } v i 

fight and thus he induced the Athenians to quit their homes and 

place all their hopes in the fleet. Themistocles was the 




MAP OF 

SAIiAMIS 



Bormoy iCo-.N-T. 



soul of resistance to Persia. His resourceful mind sup- 
plied courage, unity, and religious faith. He was now de- 
termined that the battle between Asia and Europe should 
be fought in the bay of Salamis. First, he exhausted the 
resources of eloquence and argument to persuade the ad- 
mirals that here was the most favorable place for the fight; 
but when arguments and even threats failed, he secretly 
advised the enemy to block the Greeks up in the bay. By 



Battle of Salamis 133 

following his advice, they compelled the Greeks to fight. Hdt. viii, 44, 

o cc 

The three hundred and seventy-eight Greek triremes, nearly '^ ' 
half of which were manned by Athenians, had to face a fleet 
twice as large. Though most of the enemy's naval force 
was made up of Asiatic Greeks, yet the free Greeks gained 
the victory, for they fought with better spirit. 

The poet ^schylus, who was in the fight, gives a glorious The battle of 
description of it in his historical drama, T/ie Persians. ^^"^^^' 

^ 480 B.C. 

The speaker is a Persian messenger addressing Atossa, 
Xerxes' mother. 

And when day, bright to look on with white steeds, 

O'erspread the earth, then rose from the Hellenes 

Loud chant of cry of battle, and forthwith 

Echo gave answer from each island rock; 

And terror then on all the Persians fell, 

Of fond hopes disappointed. Not in flight 

The Hellenes then their solemn paeans sang : ^sch. Pers. 

But with brave spirit hastening on to battle, 386 ff. ; of. 

"With martial sound the trumpet fired those ranks : Hdt. viii, 

And straight with sweep of oars that flew through foam, 79 "• 

They smote the loud waves at the boatswain's call; 

And swiftly all were manifest to sight. 

Then first their right wing moved in order meet; 

Next the whole line its forward course began, 

And all at once we heard a mighty shout, — 

" O sons of Hellenes, forward, free your country ; 

Free too your wives, your children, and the shrines 

Built to your fathers'' Gods, and holy tombs 

Your ajicestors now rest in. Now the fight 

Is for our allH'' And on our side indeed 

Arose in answer din of Persian speech. 

And time to wait was over : ship on ship 

Dashed its bronze-pointed beak, and first a barque 

Of Hellas did the encounter fierce begin. 

And from Phoenician vessel crashes off 

Her carved prow. And each against his neighbor 

Steers his own ship : and first the mighty flood 

Of Persian host held out. But when the ships 



134 The War ivitJi Persia and Carthage 



Results of 
the battle. 



Athenian 
envoys at 
Sparta. 

P. 128. 



Were crowded in the straits, nor could they give 

Help to each other, they with mutual shocks. 

With beaks of bronze went crushing each the other, 

Shivering their rowers' benches. And the ships 

Of Hellas, with manoeuvring not unskilful. 

Charged circling round them. And the hulls of ships 

Floated capsized, nor could the sea be seen, 

Filled, as it was, with wrecks and carcasses; 

And all the shores and rocks were full of corpses, 

And every ship was wildly rowed in fight. 

All that composed the Persian armament. 

And they, as men spear tunnies, or a haul 

Of other fishes, with the shafts of oars, 

Or spars of wrecks went smiting, cleaving down; 

And bitter groans and wailings overspread 

The wide sea-waves, till eye of swarthy night 

Bade it all cease : and for the mass of ills. 

Not, though my tale should run for ten full days, 

Could I in full recount them. Be assured 

That never yet so great a multitude 

Died in a single day as died in this. 



The Asiatic fleet was so thoroughly crippled and demor- 
alized that there was no more danger to Greece from the 
sea. Xerxes quickly withdrew from Europe, leaving Mar- 
donius in command of three hundred thousand troops. 
The contest on land was deferred to the following summer; 
but the Persian cause was strengthened by the change of 
plan, and the real crisis was yet to come. 

When the Athenians returned to their city, they found it 
in ruins. Though they might during the winter have made 
good terms with the enemy, they remained loyal to Hellas, 
only urging that the Peloponnesian army should be dis- 
Hdt. ix, 6-10. played as soon as possible in Boeotia. In the spring of 
479 B.C. Mardonius moved from his winter quarters in 
Thessaly into central Greece, and the Athenians again 
abandoned their city. Some of the Peloponnesians were 
at home; others were busy working on the Isthmian wall, 



The Crisis of the War' 135 

behind which they still planned to make their defence. 
The Athenians sent three of their most eminent citizens to 
Sparta to demand that the Peloponnesian army should im- 
mediately move forward beyond the Isthmus; otherwise the 
Athenians would be compelled to seek their own way of 
safety. The ephors put the envoys off from day to day on 
the pretext that the Spartans were celebrating the festival 
of the Hyacinthia. But in reality they had little thought 
of leading their force beyond the Isthmus. The tenth day 
came, and the envoys determined to depart next morning. 
The crisis had come; the ephors held in their hands the 
destiny of Europe. The sun set, but no word came from 
ephors to envoys. It was a heavy night for the men from 
Athens. No doubt they watched out its dreary minutes 
still hoping against hope. They little knew what was 
taking place; for all through the night messengers were 
bearing the mandates of imperial Sparta's ephors to the 
towns of the perioeci, and doubtless also to the allies who 
still remained at home, bidding Peloponnese concentrate 
its military strength at the Isthmus for a march into central 
Greece. In that same night five thousand heavy-armed 
Spartans, under the regent Pausanias, set out for the Isth- 
mus accompanied by seven times as many light-armed 
helots. In Peloponnese, Greek intellect had embodied 
itself in military discipline and organization, and two 
centuries of vigorous training were now to bear fruit. 
With amazement and joy the envoys learned in the morning 
that the war of independence was now to be waged, not for 
Peloponnese alone, but for all Greece. They flew home to 
tell the good news. Now that Sparta had decided to act, 
she would show the world how rapidly she could mobilize 
her army. 

The battle was fought at Platsea ; but the issue had never 



136 The War with Persia and Carthage 



Battle of 
Platsea, 
479 B.C. 
Hdt. ix, 
12-89. 



Hdt. ix, 55. 



War with 
Carthage. 



Causes of the 
war. 



been doubtful since that memorable day on which the fight 
was morally won in Sparta. The generals managed the 
battle awkwardly; not they but their men are to be praised 
for the victory. The Spartan spirit is typified in the sub- 
lime stubbornness of Amompharetus, a Lacedaemonian cap- 
tain. When ordered to retreat with the army to a better 
position, he seized a piece of stone, and, casting it at the 
feet of Pausanias, the commander, he exclaimed, "With 
this pebble I give my vote not to fly from the strangers ! " 
The Athenians, commanded by Aristeides, were as brave as 
the Spartans, but some of the Peloponnesian allies took no 
part in the fight. ^ 

In the summer of the same year, the Greek fleet was 
tempted across the ^gean by the Samians, who wished to 
revolt from Persia. About the time of the battle at Plataea, 
— Herodotus says on the same day, — the crews of the 
Greek vessels landed at Mycale and gained a victory over 
a greatly superior force of the Persians. The battle of 
Plataea freed continental Greece from fear of Persian 
conquest; that at Mycale pointed unmistakably to the 
liberation from Persian influence of the whole ^gean 
region east and north. 

We shall now turn our attention to the war which the 
western Greeks were meanwhile waging with Carthage. 
Sicily, the connecting link between Europe and Africa, was 
for centuries the battle-ground of these two continents, till 
all-conquering Rome decided the contest in favor of 
Europe. 

All the Greek cities of Sicily except Syracuse had fallen, 
before 485 b.c, under the rule of tyrants. In that year 
Gelon, despot of Gela, when called in to settle a civil war 
between the aristocrats and the commons in Syracuse, ended 

^ The campaign and battle; Hdt. ix, 12-89. 



Invasion of Sicily 137 

it by making himself master of this city. Leaving the gov- 
ernment of Gela to his brother, Hieron, he took up his 
residence in Syracuse, which he made the largest and 
strongest of Sicilian cities. This he did by conquering 
the surrounding communities, selling their commons into 
slavery, and making their nobles citizens of Syracuse. He 
had determined that his capital should be a city of wealthy 
men, but in carrying out this policy he betrayed an un- 
Hellenic disregard for human rights, which he had undoubt- 
edly learned from the Phoenicians. All southeastern Sicily 
came under his authority. He increased his power still 
further by marrying the daughter of Theron, tyrant of 
Acragas. While the great cities of southern Sicily were 
thus uniting under the rule of a single family, a similar 
combination was taking place among the states of the north. 
This was chiefly due to Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, who 
had added Messene to his domain and had married the 
daughter of Terillus, despot of Himera. A conflict now 
came between North and South : Theron began it by seiz- 
ing Himera and expelling its ruler. Thereupon Anaxilas 
helped his kinsman, while Theron was supported by both 
Gelon and Hieron. The strife which ensued was the im- 
mediate occasion for a Carthaginian invasion; and Terillus 
was to play in this matter the part of a Hippias. 

The Phoenicians of Carthage were originally an industrial Battle of 
and trading people with little taste for war. But to defend H^'^^'"^' 

4-00 B.C. 

their commercial position in the western Mediterranean 
they had, in the latter half of the sixth century B.C., trans- 
formed their state into a great military power. The Car- 
thaginian Mago had conceived the idea of organizing a 
gigantic mercenary force, and he thus converted the wealth 
of his city into "sinews of war." This was all in a spirit 
of defence; but when the new system was once established, 



138 The War zvith Persia and Carthage 

Carthage became a conquering state to win back the lands 
she had been compelled to yield to the Greeks. While 
Xerxes was making his tremendous levy, Carthaginian 
officers were enlisting recruits from all the islands and 
coasts of the western Mediterranean. And about the time 
that Xerxes was crossing the Hellespont, King Hamilcar 
of Carthage, landing at Panormus, advanced towards 
Himera with an army as formidable, if not so large, as 
that of the Asiatic despot. Terillus had invited interven- 
tion; and the Carthaginians were bringing him back to 
his city. They were met and defeated near Himera by the 
Hdt. vii, combined forces of Gelon and Theron. The story is told 

153-1 • tj^g^^ 2X\. day long, as the battle raged, the prophet king of 

Carthage stood apart from his host, offering victims to the 
gods, and that at last to appease the angry powers who 
seemed to be siding with the foe, he threw himself a living 
sacrifice into the flames. 

The Greeks of later time would have it that this battle 
took place on the day of Salamis. The Greek force at 
Himera was about as large as that at Plataea, but was mainly 
mercenary. It lacked the enthusiasm of patriotism, but 
was more solidly welded together, so as to move at the 
Holm, ii, command of one ruling will. Moreover, Gelon was a more 
P* ^' skilful general than Pausanias. Pindar thought of Himera 

as equal in importance to Salamis and Plataea.^ Peace was 
made soon after the battle on the basis of the status quo, 
and soon most of Greek Sicily was united under Gelon. 

1 "From Salamis shall I of the Athenians take reward of thanks; at 
Sparta when I shall tell in a song to come of the battle [at Plataea] 
before Cithseron, wherein the Medes that bear crooked bows were over- 
thrown; but by the fair-watered banks of the Himeras it shall be for 
the song I have rendered to the sons of Deinomenes \_i.e. to Gelon and 
Hieron], which by their valor they have earned, since the men that 
warred against them are overthrown." — Pyik. i. 



Results of tJie War 139 

The conflict between Greeks and foreigners was decided Contrasts 
in the East by tlie battle of Plataea; in the West, by that of i^^tween the 

East and 

Himera. The war continued for some time in the East, west. 
no longer for the defence of continental Greece, but for the 
liberation of the Hellenic cities about the ^gean, the 
Hellespont, and the Black Sea. In the West, peace with P. 14- 
Carthage followed the battle of Himera; but the Greeks 
still had before them a short, sharp struggle with the Etrus- 
cans. The victory in the East was won by the enthusiasm Holm, ii, pp. 
of free citizens; that in the West by mercenaries in the ^2, 89, n. 8. 
service of tyrants. Yet the conflict in both parts created a 
democratic spirit, which in the East made the existing con- 
stitutions still more popular, and in the West overturned 
tyranny and set up republican governments. The war P. 118. 
with Persia and Carthage did much to unite the states of 
Hellas : Sparta remained for a time the political centre of 
the East and Syracuse of the West. Finally, the victorious 
Greeks, filled with energy and confidence by their unex- 
pected success, now entered upon their great age in liter- 
ature, art, and politics. 

Sources 

Herodotus, bks. vi-ix; Diodorus, bk. xi; V\yx\.zxc^, Theviistocles zxi^ Reading. 
Aristeides; ^schylus, Persians. 

Modern Authorities 

(i) The War with Persia: Holm, History of Greece, II, chs. ii-v; 
Abbott, History of Greece, II, i-v; Oman, History of Greece, chs. 
xvii-xx; Timayenis, History of Greece, T, pt. iii, chs. ii-viii; Curtius, 
History of Greece, II, bk. iii, ch. i; Grote, History of Greece, IV, ch. 
xxxvi, V, chs. xxxviii-xlii; Cox, Greeks and Persians, chs. vi-viii. 

(2) The War with Carthage: Holm, II, ch. vi; Abbott, II, ch. xii; 
Oman, History of Greece, ch. xxi; Allcroft and Masom, History of 
Sicily, chs. i-iii; Freeman, History of Sicily, II, chs. v, vi; Story of 
Sicily, chs. v, vi; Timayenis, I, pt. iii, ch. ix; Curtius, III, bk, iv, ch.iii; 
Grote, V, ch. xliii. 




Cave of Apollo in Delos 



CHAPTER VIII 



Gelon be- 
comes king. 

P. 136 f. 



Literature. 
Pp. 9, 105. 



THE AGE OF CIMON — HARMONY AMONG THE GREEK 
STATES (479-461 B.C.) 

The victory of Himera brought Gelon great honor and 
strengthened his hold on the government. One day he 
appeared unprotected in an assembly of armed citizens — 
a bold thing for a tyrant — to render an account of his rule. 
The people, thus taken into his confidence, hailed him as 
their benefactor, preserver, and king; and from that time 
they regarded him not as a tyrant, but as the sovereign of 
their choice. Two years after the battle he died lamented 
by his subjects, who looked upon him as the second founder 
of their city. His brother Hieron succeeded him. 

These two rulers were liberal patrons of culture and made 
Syracuse the most brilliant city of Greece. The foremost 
place in civilization, once held by Ionia, was now filled 

140 



The Court of Hieron 141 

by western Greece. Just as the Asiatic Greeks composed 
the first poetry of their race which has come down to us, 
the Sicilians were the first to cultivate comedy, rhetoric, 
and oratory, and to bring architecture to a high stage of 
excellence. Hieron gathered about him the most brilliant 
talent he could find. Among the men of genius at his 
court was Epicharmus, the first great comic poet of Greece. Epicharmus. 
He was a scientist and physician as well as a writer of 
comedies, — a broad-minded man. Pindar himself tells us Pindar. 
that he, too, took pleasure in visiting " the rich and happy P, 91 f. 
hearth of Hieron; for he wieldeth the sceptre of justice in 
Sicily of many flocks, culling the choice fruits of all kinds 
of excellence; and is made splendid with the flower of 
music, even such strains as we sing blithely at the table of 
a friend." ^schylus of Athens spent several years with ^schyius. 
Hieron, and perhaps in Syracuse composed his drama ^-^SS.isgff- 
The Suppliants. A passage in it seems to be addressed 
to Sicily's "king " : "You are the city; you are the public; Suppliants, 
as irresponsible chief you have power over the altar, 37° ff- 
the hearth of the land, by your own sovereign decrees; 
and so, seated on a throne of undisputed sway, you ratify 
all civil business. Beware of incurring guilt in the sight 
of the gods." yEschylus was probably the first to set forth 
this idea of kingship, which Louis XIV of France reiter- 
ated when he said, "I am the state." 

Many other distinguished men, both poets and philoso- Art. 
phers, sojourned at his court; and sculptors, architects, and 
workmen found plenty of employment under him. For the 
victory at Himera brought a new era in art; the victors, in 
gratitude to the gods for their help, built new temples in 
the various cities of Sicily. Although the citizens usually Pind. oiymp. 
lived in small, cheap houses, in marked contrast to the "' ^y^^'^-'^^^- 
magnificent dwellings of the gods, those of Acragas were an 



142 



The Age of Cimon 



Battle off 
Cumae, 
474 B.C. 



exception to the rule, as many of them had fine residences; 
in fact, this city was, under Theron, the most beautiful in 
Greece. 

Hieron had spent but a few years in the works of peace 
when he was called to the defence of Hellas against the 
Etruscans. These people lived in Italy north of Rome; 
but as they had a strong navy, they were threatening to take 
possession of all the western coast of the peninsula. This 
would have been a great misfortune, for the Etruscans were 
inferior to the Greeks in civilization. They had overrun 
fertile Campania and were coming to attack Cumae, when 
Hieron defeated them near that city in a naval battle, and 
checked forever the growth of their power. This victory 
saved not only the Greeks of Italy, but even Rome itself, 
Vin<^. Pyth. \, from the Etruscans. On that day, "they beheld the ca- 
lamity of their ships that befell them before Cumae, even 
how they were smitten by the captain of the Syracusans, 
who from their swift ships hurled their youth into the sea, 
to deliver Hellas from the bondage of the oppressor." 
After this battle came a time of quiet and prosperity. The 
Sicilians out of respect for Hieron and Theron endured the 
monarchy as long as these able rulers lived, but they rebelled 
against their worthless sons. Then Syracuse, Acragas, and 
the other cities of Sicily became republics, and at the same 
time lost political connection with each other. Thus it 
came about that the downfall of tyranny left Sicily disunited 
and weak, and at the same time brought a decline in culture. 
For during the next few years the new republics were so 
disturbed by civil wars that they could give little attention 
to the refinements of life. The old citizens were trying to 
exclude from their civil rights those who, in reward for 
mercenary service, had received the franchise from the 
tyrants. Finally they gained their point, and, in 461 B.C., 



Revolution 
in Sicily, 
472-465 B.C. 



Fortification of Athens 143 

a congress of deputies from the various Sicilian cities settled 
all civil disputes and established firmly the republics. 

Meantime the Greeks of Italy were growing more demo- Revolution 
cratic. Their cities had been ruled either by tyrants or by ^^ ^*^^^' 
oligarchs; those of the Achaeans were under the control of 
Pythagorean brotherhoods, which were at once religious 
and aristocratic. The populace of Croton in its zeal for P. 95. 
democracy attacked the Pythagoreans while they were as- 
sembled in their meeting-house, and by setting fire to the 
building destroyed nearly the whole fraternity. The sect 
met with similar experiences in the other Achaean cities; 
the tyrants, too, were overthrown, and by the middle of 
the fifth century b.c. all the Greek states of Italy, except P. 32. 
Locri, had become democratic. 

We shall now follow the history of the eastern Greeks Eastern 

from 479 to 461 B.C. Greece, 

479-461 B.C. 

As soon as all danger from the Persians was over, the 
Athenians returned home from exile and began to rebuild Fortification 
their city and its walls. They had sacrificed more than all of^^^ens. 
the other Greeks together in the cause of Hellenic freedom. P. 134. 
But instead of sympathizing with them in their misfortune, 
some of the Greek states, doubtless through jealousy, com- 
plained of Athens to Sparta, and asked that the building 
of the defences be stopped. It was urged that the Athenian 
walls would be merely a protection to the Persians on 
another invasion, and that Peloponnese would afford a suf- 
ficient refuge for all. This was in accord with the narrow. Pp. 118 f., 128, 
selfish policy which the Spartan ephors had pursued -^3+ 
throughout the late war. As they found it easier to rule 
defenceless cities, they acted readily on the suggestion of 
their allies. They sent envoys who advised the Athenians 
to stop fortifying their city and to join the Lacedaemonians 
rather in tearing down the walls of all the communities 



144 



The Age of Cimon 



outwits the 
Lacedae- 
monians. 

Thuc. i, 90 f. 



north of the Isthmus. The policy of Lacedaemon was evi- 
dently to rule Greece if convenient, and to protect only 
Peloponnese; but the Athenians would not submit to an 
Themistocies arrangement so unjust. As they were in no condition to 
face a Peloponnesian army, the resourceful Themistocies 
provided a way out of the difficulty. 

Following his advice, the Athenians appointed him, 
Aristeides, and a third person ambassadors to Sparta to dis- 
cuss the question at issue. Aristeides as a member of the 
embassy did all in his power to aid Themistocies in the 
stratagem. He must have seen clearly that the Athenians, 
who themselves aspired to leadership among the Greeks, 
could not suffer their city to become an unwalled township of 
Lacedaemon. Themistocies "proposed that he should start 
at once for Sparta, and that his colleagues should wait until 
the wall reached the lowest height which could possibly be 
defended. The whole people, men, women, and children, 
should join in the work, and they must spare no building, 
private or public, which could be of use, but demolish them 
all. Having given these instructions and intimated that 
he would manage affairs at Sparta, he departed. On his 
arrival he did not at once present himself officially to the 
magistrates, but delayed and made excuses; and when any 
of them asked him why he did not appear before the as- 
sembly, he said that he was waiting for his colleagues, who 
had been detained by some engagement; he was daily ex- 
pecting them, and wondered that they had not appeared. 

"The friendship of the Lacedaemonian magistrates for 
Themistocies induced them to believe him; but when every- 
body who came from Athens declared positively that the 
wall was building and had already reached a considerable 
height, they knew not what to think. He, aware of their 
suspicions, desired them not to be misled by reports, but 



Athens the 
equal of 
Sparta. 



Athens and the Asiatic Greeks 145 

to send to Athens men whom they could trust out of their 
own number, who would see for themselves and bring back 
word. They agreed; and he at the same time privately 
instructed the Athenians to detain the envoys as quietly as 
they could, and not let them go till he and his colleagues 
had got safely home. For by this time . . . [the two other 
Athenian ambassadors] had arrived, bringing the news that 
the wall was of sufficient height; and he was afraid that the 
Lacedaemonians, when they heard the truth, might not allow 
them to return. So the Athenians detained the envoys, and 
Themistocles, coming before the Lacedaemonians, at length 
declared in so many words that Athens was now provided 
with walls and could protect her citizens; " and that hence- 
forth Sparta must treat her as an equal. It was a bold game 
well played. The ephors replied that their proposal to 
Athens had been intended merely as friendly advice. The 
outcome of the matter was that although the Spartans were Thuc. i, 18, 
thoroughly indignant with Themistocles, the alliance be- ■^°^' ^^' 
tween the two states remained intact. 

While the Athenians were fortifying their city, important Germ of the 
events were happening elsewhere. The victory of Mycale ^^^^^" 

. Confederacy. 

led to the revolt of the lonians and of some other Asiatic 
Greeks from the Persians. The Peloponnesian commanders P. 136. 
of the fleet at Samos could not think of maintaining a force 
in Asia Minor for the protection of these new allies. They p. 127. 
proposed instead to expel those European Greeks who had 
sided with the enemy and to settle the lonians on the lands 
thus made vacant. The Athenian generals stoutly objected ' 
to the plan. They insisted that the Peloponnesians had no 
right to interfere between Athens and her colonies, and that Pp. 8 f., 113. 
the Athenians would themselves give the necessary protec- 
tion. As the Peloponnesians gladly yielded, the Athenian 
commanders formed a close alliance with the Asiatic 



146 



The Age of Cimon 



Athens 
leader of the 
maritime 
states- 



Peiraeus. 
476 B.C. 

Thuc. i, 93. 



Greeks, out of which the Delian Confederacy afterwards 
grew. In making this arrangement Athens was merely re- 
ceiving a cast-off burden, but she readily accepted it as she 
foresaw that it would be to her interest. 

But the Lacedaemonians still wished to lead the Greeks 
by sea as well as by land; and so the next spring they sent 
out Pausanias to command the fleet of the allies in their 
war with Persia. He laid siege to Byzantium, which was 
still occupied by the enemy; but while engaged in this 
work he offered to betray Greece into Persian hands on 
condition that he might become tyrant of his country and 
son-in-law of the king. Meantime he was cruel and arro- 
gant to those under his authority. The Asiatic Greeks who 
had joined the expedition, resenting such treatment, begged 
the Athenian generals, Aristeides and Cimon, to take charge 
of the fleet. The gentleness and courtesy of the com- 
manders from Athens contrasted strikingly with the bru- 
tality of Pausanias. Naturally, too, the Athenians and the 
Asiatic Greeks sympathized with each other because of their 
close kinship. Aristeides and Cimon accepted the invita- 
tion, for they were as ready as Themistocles to benefit their 
city, even at the risk of breaking with Sparta. The Lace- 
daemonians recalled Pausanias to answer the charges against 
him, and soon afterwards yielded the leadership at sea to 
Athens. They saw no advantage to themselves in continu- 
ing the war with Persia and could not trust their command- 
ers abroad. They believed, too, that they should lose none 
of their prestige by this arrangement, for Athens was still 
their ally and pledged by treaty to follow their lead in war. 

As soon as the Athenians had finished rebuilding their 
city, Themistocles began to fortify Peiraeus. He sur- 
rounded it with a massive wall seven miles in circuit, for 
he wished it to be so strong that no enemy could take it 



Themistocles^ Leader of Hellas 147 

by storm, and to contain at the same time ample space for 
trade and industry. Peiraeus soon became, next to Tyre 
and Carthage, the most flourishing commercial city of the 
Mediterranean. 

Themistocles was in the main a man of peace; and after Themistocies 
the battle of Salamis, he ceased to lead his countrymen in *^ leading 

statesman 

war, but remained at home in order to supervise the build- of Hellas, 
ing of the navy and defences, and to direct the foreign 
affairs of Athens. His was a broad policy, designed to 
bring his city into relations with all Greece — especially 
with those states which were still independent of Sparta. 
He continued for a few years to be the most popular and 
the most influential man in Hellas. At the Olympic games, 
in the summer of 476 B.C., when Themistocles entered the 
stadium, the spectators took no further notice of the ath- 
letes, but spent the whole day in looking at him, in show- 
ing him to the strangers, and in applauding him by clapping 
their hands. He himself, highly gratified, admitted to his 
friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his labors for 
the Greeks. 

But Themistocles was not to remain popular much longer; The policy of 
for about a year after this event, by again provoking the Lacedaemon. 
anger of the Lacedaemonians, he prepared the way for his 
own ruin. To understand the causes of his downfall, it is 
necessary to know the aims of the Lacedaemonians. They 
wished to unite all the loyal states of Greece under their 
own leadership. As a step towards realizing this ideal they 476 b.c. 
sent their king, Leotychidas, with a fleet and army to punish 
the Thessalians for having joined the Persian king in the 
late war, and to bring them under the rule of Sparta. He 
was successful in several battles, and might have accom- 
plished his object, had he not accepted a bribe from the 
enemy. There could be no doubt as to his guilt, for the 



148 



The Age of Cimon 



475 B.C. 
Hdt. vi, 71 f. 



Themistocles 

and 

Lacedaemon. 



P.99f. 



Combina- 
tion against 
Themis- 
tocles. 
475 B.C. 



P. 124. 



Plut. 
Themistocles. 



money he had taken was seen in his tent. On his return 
he was prosecuted for this misconduct and ended his life 
in exile at Tegea. His grandson, Archidamus, succeeded 
him. 

Thus the Lacedaemonians found it unprofitable to engage 
in distant military operations because of the character of 
their leaders. But they still hoped to gain by diplomacy 
what they had failed to win by force. They proposed, 
accordingly, in the council of the Delphic League that all 
those states which had favored the enemy should be ejected 
from the League and that their places should be filled by the 
loyal states. This would exclude the Thessalians and the 
Argives, both friendly to Athens, and would substitute for 
them the allies of Sparta. Themistocles, the Athenian 
deputy in the council, by opposing the plan, kept the Lace- 
dsemonians from gaining further power at the expense of 
Athens; but his conduct so angered them that they never 
rested thereafter till they had ruined him. 

First, they began to stir up party strife at Athens; for 
from the beginning of Xerxes' invasion all political differ- 
ences had been hushed and an era of good feeling had set 
in. But now the Lacedaemonians, interfering in Athenian 
affairs, urged Cimon forward as a leader of the conserva- 
tives, and consequently as an opponent of Themistocles. 
In this way they excited the democrats and the conserva- 
tives to raging against each other. Aristeides, though a 
democrat, allied himself, apparently for personal reasons, 
with Cimon, and several other eminent men joined the 
combination. Now Themistocles was by no means an 
amiable man. Because his ability had saved the Greeks in 
the late war, he deified his own genius, built a shrine to it 
near his house, and worshipped it under the name of " Best- 
counselling Artemis." His enormous egotism left no room 



Themistocles in Peloponnese 149 

in the state for other public men; so all who aspired to 

leadership naturally became his enemies and united against 

him. On his return from Delphi, Leobotes, one of the 475 e.g. 

Alcmeonidse, who for ages had been at feud with the family 

of Themistocles, brought against him a charge of Medism, 

that is, of giving treasonable help or encouragement to 

Persia. But though the accusation was brought before the 

Council of the Areopagus, a thoroughly conservative body, 

he was acquitted and still remained popular. The people 

respected him for his great ability and for his services to 

the state, and loved him because he was in perfect touch 

with them; in fact, he is said to have known every one of 

them by name. But finally his opponents resorted to Ostracism of 

ostracism and represented him as a dangerous man. ^"^^^" 

tocles, about 

Though he had many supporters, they scattered their votes 472 e.g. 
among his several opponents, while the votes of all his 
enemies were directed against him alone, and he was 
accordingly banished. He retired to Argos, and from 
there travelled about Peloponnese. Wherever he went, 
democracy sprang up in his footsteps and expressed itself 
in rebellion against Sparta. Elis, Arcadia, and Argos now 
became democratic. The spirit of freedom awakened by 
the war with Persia was acting upon all Hellas; in Pelo- 
ponnese its tendency was, by arousing opposition to oli- 
garchy, to disorganize the League. The Arcadians joined P. 79. 
Argos in a war with Sparta, but were easily defeated. 
Sparta took advantage of this victory to reorganize the 
League, so as to knit it firmly together; by gaining more 
thorough control of its resources she prepared to maintain 
her supremacy and her political principles against the en- 
croachments of Athens and the democracy. 

While the Lacedaemonians were having these troubles, p^ ^^^j^ 
Pausanias was annoying them by his conduct. He not only p. 146. 



ISO 



The Age of Cimon 



472-471 B.C. 

Thuc. i, 

131-134- 
P. 46. 

Themistocles 
implicated. 

Thuc. i, 135. 



464 B.C. 



His death. 
Thuc. i, 138. 



continued his treasonable correspondence with Persia, but 
even began to intrigue with the helots, promising them 
citizenship if they would support him in his plans. No 
sooner had the ephors got evidence of all his doings and 
resolved to arrest him, than he fled for refuge to a shrine of 
Athena. Fearing to drag him away, they walled him in, so 
that he died of starvation; and thus the Lacedaemonians 
brought upon themselves the curse of impiety. 

The ephors now alleged that they had found some corre- 
spondence between Pausanias and Themistocles which, they 
said, proved Themistocles also guilty of Medism. They 
demanded that he should be tried for this crime. He had 
long been a thorn in the flesh, and they had now found a 
means of removing him once for all. Athenian officers, 
accompanied by Lacedaemonians, went to Peloponnese to 
bring him to Athens for trial. Themistocles, hearing of 
their coming, escaped to Corcyra, and after various wander- 
ings made his way to the court of the Persian king. Here 
he found safety from his pursuers; he was kindly received 
and given the revenues of some Greek cities ^ in western 
Asia Minor, which were apparently still under the Persian 
rule. He may have made the king some promise of subdu- 
ing Greece, but he certainly did nothing to carry it into 
effect. Finally he died of sickness, though some of the 
Greeks believed that he took poison to avoid fulfilling his 
promise to the king. Thus Themistocles, who was perhaps 
the greatest of the Greeks, ended his life in obscurity and 
dishonor; but years afterwards he became, next to Solon, 
the idol of the Athenians. Aristophanes, the comic writer, 
tells how the citizens of a later age looked back to him as 
to a rich and generous host, — 



Magnesia, Myus, and Lampsacus. 



The Delian Confederacy 151 

Who found us exhausted and filled us anew 

With a bumper of opulence; carving and sharing 

Rich slices of empire ; and kindly preparing, Knights, 

While his guests were at dinner, a capital supper, 813 ff. 

With a dainty remove both under and upper, 

The fort and the harbor, and many a dish 

Of colonies, islands, and such kind of fish. 

If, too, in after time an Athenian orator wished to bring Cf. Lys. 
before his hearers the picture of a great warrior, statesman, ^"' ^' 
and patriot in contrast with some contemporary who be- 
trayed his country's interests, he needed only mention the 
name of Themistocles. 

It was Themistocles who, by the creation of a navy and The Delian 
harbor, prepared the way for the supremacy of Athens in °" ^ T^^l' 
the ^gean Sea. In 478 b.c. the Athenians had secured 
the leadership of the ^Egean cities recently liberated from 
Persia, and in the following year they organized their new 
alliance. It centred at the shrine of Apollo on the island 
of Delos, and was named therefore the Delian Confederacy. 
Naturally its constitution was patterned after that of the P- 79- 
Peloponnesian League. The allies were to furnish ships 
and crews led by Athenian generals, and a congress of depu- 
ties from all the allied states was to meet at Delos under the 
presidency of representatives from Athens. But in impor- 
tant respects the Delian Confederacy differed from the 
Peloponnesian League. It was necessary to maintain a 
large fleet in the ^gean as a defence against the Persians, 
whereas no standing force was needed for the protection of 
Peloponnese. Money is absolutely necessary for the sup- 
port of a fleet; hence the Delian Confederacy, unlike the 
Peloponnesian League, levied annual taxes. Aristeides, Census of 
who was commissioned to take the first census, decided ^"steides, 

477 B.C. 

which states should furnish ships with their crews and which 

should contribute money. The larger communities gener- Thuc. i, 96 f. 



152 



The Age of Cimon 



p. 22 f. 



Growth of 

the 

Confederacy. 



Thuc. i, 99. 



P. no. 



ally provided naval forces, while the smaller paid taxes. 
The total annual cost of maintaining the Confederacy 
amounted, by the assessment of Aristeides, to four hundred 
and sixty talents. It remained about the same for half a 
century. The treasury, in the temple of the Delian Apollo, 
was managed by treasurers who were exclusively Athenians. 
The Confederacy itself, which was based on the older reli- 
gious league of Delos, was placed under the protection of 
Apollo. 

With Cimon as leader, the Delian Confederacy rapidly 
expanded till it came, within a few years, to include the 
eastern and northern coasts and most of the islands of the 
^gean. The Persians were dislodged from this whole 
region, and there was little apparent danger from them for 
the present. But this very feeling of security proved to be 
extremely mischievous. Many of the allies, finding mili- 
tary service irksome, offered to pay taxes instead. Cimon 
advised the Athenians to accept these payments, as they 
could build and equip triremes at less expense than the 
separate allied towns, and hence could fulfil their agree- 
ment to protect the ^gean, give work to the laboring class 
among themselves, and have money left for their own pub- 
lic use. It was a further consideration that a fleet made 
up chiefly of Athenians would be far more united, and thus 
more efficient, than if composed of unwilling allies. The 
disarming of the allies, on the other hand, naturally de- 
graded them to the condition of protected subjects. Then 
some grew tired even of paying the tribute. Indeed, they 
could no longer see the need of a confederacy since the 
Persians had ceased to trouble them. They did not reflect 
that it was the Athenian navy which kept the oppressor at 
a distance, and that as soon as they should be left unpro- 
tected the Persian satrap would once more send them his 



Revolts 153 

tax-gatherers. It became henceforth a more difficult task 

to prevent the disruption of the Confederacy than to defend 

it against foreign enemies. 

Naxos was the first to revolt. It had a strong navy and Revolt of 

expected aid from Persia; but Cimon besieged the island ^^^°^- 

and reduced it before help could arrive. The Naxians 

were compelled to tear down their walls, surrender their 

fleet, and pay henceforth an annual tribute. Thus Naxos 469 ^-c 

lost its freedom and became dependent on Athens. Soon 468 b.c. 

afterwards, at the mouth of the Eurymedon on the coast of 

Pamphylia, Cimon gained a double victory over a Phoeni- Thuc i, 100. 

cian fleet and a land force of Persians. As a result of this 

battle the Persians gave up hoping to recover their Greek 

possessions : — 

Now with adverse turn of fortune, ^sch. Pers. 

With Ionian seamen meeting, loii ff. 

Fails in war the race of Persians. 

Another outcome of the victory was that the Carian and 
Lycian coasts came into the Delian Confederacy, bringing 
the number of cities up to about two hundred. 

Next came the revolt of Thasos, the cause of which was Revolt of 
a quarrel between the Athenians and the Thasians as to Thasos, 

465 B.C. 

certain gold mines of Thrace, in which both had an inter- 
est. Thasos was one of the strongest of the allies. It had 
a fleet of thirty-three ships, valuable possessions in Thrace, 
and a foreign policy of its own. After a siege of two years 463 b.c 
Cimon reduced the island, and punished it just as he had 
Naxos. 

Athens was now reaching a high degree of prosperity. Earthquake 
while Sparta was declining. Through jealousy of the at Sparta. 
growing power of their rival, the Lacedaemonians began to Thuc i, loi. 
interfere in the affairs of the Confederacy. They had se- 
cretly encouraged the Thasians to hold out against Athens 



154 ^'^^ ^S^ of Cimon 

by promising to invade Attica. Tliis agreement, however, 
they were prevented from fulfilling by a terrible earthquake, 

Piut. Cimon. which nearly destroyed Sparta. Only a few houses were 
left standing, and thousands of lives were lost. Many of 
the helots had recently been slain on suspicion of having 

P. 149- intrigued with Pausanias. The authorities at Sparta had 

even dragged some away from sanctuaries and put them to 
death. Hence the earthquake was regarded by the lower 
classes in Laconia as a divine punishment visited upon 

Revolt of the Lacedaemon for her sin. The helots revolted, and in the 

^ °^^' general confusion caused by earthquake and superstition 

they nearly captured Sparta by surprise. But most of the 

perioeci remained loyal, and the shattered city was saved 

p. 148. by the promptness of King Archidamus. The insurgents, 

P. 57. who were mostly Messenians, seized and fortified, in their 

own country. Mount Ithome, one of the strongest military 

Thuc.i, loif. positions in Peloponnese. As the Lacedaemonians could 
accomplish nothing against them single-handed, they asked 
help of their allies, including the Athenians. When the 
envoys reached Athens, a hot debate ensued as to whether 
aid should be sent. After the banishment of Themistocles, 
the democratic party, believing that Sparta was a dead 
weight attached to Athens, continued to uphold his policy 

Ephiaites. of cutting loose from Peloponnese. Its leader was now 
Themistocles' friend, Ephiaites, a good citizen and an 
upright statesman. He vehemently opposed the resolution 
to send assistance to the Lacedaemonians and advised that 
"the pride and arrogance of Sparta be trodden under." 
Cimon, who was present, was of the opposite opinion. He 
was only a half-Athenian by birth, ^ and his natural charac- 
ter led him to sympathize with the Lacedaemonians. In 

Piut. Cimon. the debate with Ephiaites, he urged the Athenians "not to 

1 His mother was the daughter of a Thracian tribal chief. 



Sparta and Athe^is 155 

suffer Greece to be lamed or Athens to be deprived of her 
yoke-mate," meaning that the alliance between these two 
states should be preserved by every means. His public 
policy was war with the Persians and close union with 
Sparta. Thus Cimon had come to be a great representative 
of the principle of Hellenic unity. The ideal was grand, 
and if attained would have proved the salvation of Greece. 
But unfortunately it was impracticable. Sparta and Athens Sparta and 
were growing so unlike in character that they could no * ^'^^' 
longer work in harmony. The rigid discipline of the Spar- P. 57 f. 
tans was making them hard, narrow, and ignorant; on the 
other hand, the Athenian taste was growing more intellectual 
and refined; the Athenians were fast becoming a commu- 
nity of public men quick to plan and ready in action, " the 
only people who succeed to the full extent of their hope, Thuc i, 70. 
because they undertake forthwith whatever they have re- 
solved to do." Union with Sparta meant submission to 
Sparta — the slavery of mind to muscle. The mission of 
Athens was moral, intellectual, and artistic as well as polit- 
ical; and if she was to achieve her utmost for the world, 
it was necessary for her to be free from all external re- 
straints. Cimon' s Laconian policy was, therefore, proba- 462 b.c. 
bly a mistake. Nevertheless he prevailed, and led a force 
of Athenians against Ithome. 

Cimon left his party without a leader at a very critical Council of 

time. Since the war with Persia democratic ideas had *^^ 

Areopagus 
been gaming ground at Athens. Influenced by Aristeides, 

the government had begun to pay for public service, in 
order that the poor might stand on an equality with the 
rich in their relations with the state. Thus Aristeides in- 
troduced a radical democratic principle into the constitu- 
tion. The only important conservative element remaining 
in it was the Council of the Areopagus. As the Areopagites 



156 



The Age of Cimon 



462 B.C. 

A list. Ath. 
Cofist. 25; 
Plut. Pericles. 



Cimon and 
Pericles. 



P. 123. 



Plut. Cimon. 



Pay for jury 
service. 



462 B.C. (?) 



held office for life, they were usually a generation behind 
time in the questions of the day. In Cimon' s absence 
Ephialtes directed an attack upon this body, and carried a 
measure which deprived it of all political authority. It 
remained little more than a court with jurisdiction in cases 
of murder. 

Ephialtes was supported in this measure by Pericles, son 
of Xanthippus. Though a young man, Pericles was already 
recognized as a prominent leader of the democrats against 
the conservative Cimon. The antagonism of these two 
men was all the keener from the fact that they were heredi- 
tary opponents. Cimon, who had acquired enormous 
wealth through his victories, spent it liberally on the state 
and the citizens. He was a noble of the old stamp in an 
age when men of his class were rare. His attitude towards 
the people of his township was that of a great lord towards 
his retainers; he had the fences pulled down from about 
his orchards that his neighbors might freely enjoy the fruit; 
his table was plain, but all his townsmen were welcome 
to eat with him. Those who were thus maintained at his 
expense supported him in political life. Cimon was not 
dangerous to the state, though a man in his position might 
easily become so. The idea of Pericles was to enlist the 
citizens in the service of the state, that they might" be at- 
tached to it rather than to individuals like Cimon. His 
chief means to this end was the passage of an act to pay 
jurors a small fee, probably two obols (six cents) a day, for 
their service. Thus he and Ephialtes finished the work 
which Aristeides had begun, and Athens became a pure 
democracy. Ephialtes was soon afterward assassinated, 
probably by political enemies. 

Meantime the Athenian troops at Ithome failed to carry 
the insurgents' position; and the Lacedaemonian authori- 



Athenian Culture 157 

ties, suspecting them of treachery, insolently dismissed Alliance be- 
them. Cimon returned to Athens an unpopular man. In ^^^" 

^ ^ and Sparta 

trying to check the rising tide of democracy, he was met dissolved, 
with taunts of over-fondness for Sparta and of immorality 462 b.c. 
in his private life. Athens abandoned his policy, broke 
loose from Sparta, and began to form an alliance of her 
own wholly independent of the Peloponnesian League. 
Cimon' s resistance to these new movements led to his 
ostracism in 461 b.c. 

Before the war with Persia the highest Greek culture was Athens 
on the circumference of Hellas: the colonists had out- i^^dsm 

civilization. 
Stripped the mother country. And for a time after the war 

Syracuse remained the most brilliant city of Greece, 
though it declined on the death of Hieron. Greek civili- 
zation now gravitated towards Athens. Selecting the best 
elements of Hellenic culture it could find, this city brought 
them to perfection. 

When the Persians destroyed Athens, they had left the cimon 
Acropolis strewn with the wrecks of temples and sculpture. ^[io'""s the 

city. 

Themistocles had begun the restoration of the Acropolis; 
Cimon continued the work and, with the proceeds from the 
spoils of Eurymedon, made a great substructure on the P. 153. 
south slope of the Acropolis to prepare a level site for a 
Parthenon, or temple of Athena. But the building of the 
temple itself was left to Pericles. Cimon adorned the city 
in various ways. He planted shade trees in the Academy, The 
beneath whose sacred olives the modest boys of Athens used Academy, 
to run races " crowned with white reeds, smelling of yew, Aristoph. 

of careless hours, and of the leaf -shedding poplar, rejoic- Clouds, 

1 r -111 1 • 1005 ff- 

mg in the fragrant spring, when the plane tree whispers to 

the elm." The older people, too, found it a delightful 

refuge from the crowded population and the barren rocks 

of the city. In going to the Academy, the Athenian left 



158 



The Age of Cimon 



The 

Cerameicus. 



"The Pain ted 
Porch." 



the city by the Dipylon gate and passed through the Cera- 
meicus, a national cemetery which Cimon set apart for 
those of his countrymen who had fallen in battle. 

One of Cimon's kinsmen built a colonnade in the market- 
place, in a newly planted grove of plane trees, and Polyg- 



Polygnotus. 



Pausanias, 
i, 15. 




An Athenian Gravestone 

(From the Cerameicus. National Museum, Athens.) 

notus of Thasos and other famous painters of the age 
adorned the interior with mural pictures. Among these 
were scenes from the mythical past and others from recent 
history. The most noted of the pictures was the " Battle of 
Marathon," in which the figures of Miltiades, Callimachus 
(the polemarch), and ^Eschylus were prominent. The 
artists selected this subject in honor of the family of their 
patron, Cimon. The style of Polygnotus was heroic and 



Sculpture and Poetry 



159 



simple, expressing the spirit of the age. To him man was 
the absorbing theme, which permitted but a dim suggestion 
of nature in the background. 

The great sculptor of the time was Myron of Athens, the 
predecessor of Pheidias. He was the artist of the moment; 
his "crouching Dis- 
cobolus is like an 
arrow sped from a 
bow." For the first 
time art had so de- 
veloped that the story 
of the whole action 
could be read from 
the momentary atti- 
tude of the figure. 
This probably came 
through the influence 
of the drama. Athens 
was now distinctly 
taking the lead in 
art ; her only rival 
was the friendly city 
of Argos. 

Lyric poetry was 
still represented by 
Pindar, whose spirit 

and ideas belong to the preceding period, and by Simoni- 
des, who was older in years than Pindar, though more 
modern in style and thought. These men, belonging to no 
city, were thoroughly national in spirit. The poet of the 
age, however, was ^Eschylus, the first of the great Attic 
dramatists. He fought in the battles of Marathon and 
Salamis, and from them he drew his inspiration^ To the 




Discobolus 

(After Myron. Vatican Museum, Rome.) 



Myron. 

Holm, ii, 
p. 169. 



Lyric poetry 
— Pindar 
and Simoni- 
des, pp. 90 f., 
141. 



Dramatic 
poetry — 
.^schylus. 



i6o 



The Age of Cimoii 



He died at 
Gela in 
Sicily. 



His religion. 



day of his death he remained a warrior in spirit, as is indi- 
cated by the epitaph composed, it is believed, by himself : 

This tomb the dust of ^schylus doth hid© — 
Euphorion's son and fruitful Gala's pride; 
How famed his valor Marathon may tell, 
And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well. 

But not a word is 
said of his poetry. 

^schylus was a 
man of gigantic 
mind and emotions; 
he set before himself 
the task of solving 
the problems of the 
universe. Although 
he clung to the an- 
cient belief in all the 
gods as supernatural 
powers, yet, above all 
— above even the 
Zeus of popular con- 
ception — he placed 
a supreme being who, 
though perhaps name- 
less, permitted his 
worshippers to call 
him Zeus. The fol- 
lowing is a bold, 
grand conception of 
the power and wisdom of the God in whom he believed : — 




Zeus 

(Vatican Museum, It was formerly believed that 
this was copied after the Olympian Zeus of Pheidias; 
but the original is now known to be no older than 
the age of Alexander.) 



Suppliants, 
85 ff. 
(Morshead.) 



Though the deep will of Zeus be hard to track, 

Yet doth it flame and glance, 
A beacon in the dark 'mid clouds of chance 

That wrap mankind. 



^schylus i6i 

Yea, though the counsel fall, undone it shall not lie, 
Whate'er be shaped and fixed within Zeus' ruling mind — 
Dark as a solemn grove, with sombre leafage shaded 

His paths of purpose wind, 

A marvel to men's eye. 
Smitten by him, from towering hopes degraded. 

Mortals lie low and still; 
Tireless and effortless works forth its will 

The arm divine ! 
God from his holy seat, in calm of unarmed power, 
Brings forth the deed at its appointed hour ! 

As for men, their duty is piety towards the gods, kindliness 
to the weak and unfortunate, and strict observance of the 
eternal law of righteousness. The early Greeks were of the Doctrine of 
opinion that excessive prosperity brought upon a family ^^^^"^ ^"^y- 
the envy of the gods, which in the end caused its ruin, 
^schylus was the first to teach that not prosperity itself, 
but the insolence and crime which excessive wealth tends 
to produce are the real cause of such a family's overthrow : — 

For wanton Pride from blossom grows to fruit, Pers. 821 f. 

The full corn in the ear of utter woe. 
And reaps a tear-fraught harvest. 

The most heinous of all crimes was the shedding of kindred 
blood: "Destiny is the armorer that forges the sword in 
readiness and causes one murder in a family to bring forth 
another. And in due time deep-minded Fury pays to the Ckoepkori, 
uttermost the guilt of former murders," by bringing the ^^^ff. 
guilt-stained house to a wretched end. But the gods are 
merciful and chasten men for their own salvation : " A god Sufifering 
it is who leads mortals on the way to wisdom, and who has *^^^^^^- 

"^ _ ^ Agamemnon, 

ordained that sufferings should convey instruction. For 176 ff. 
anxiety that is ever recalling past woes, presenting itself to 
the heart in sleep, instils obedience, and so it comes even 
to the unwilling : and perhaps this is a mercy of the gods 
who sit on their awful thrones with power to compel." 

M 



1 62 The Age of Ciinon 

Sources 

Reading. Most valuable are the poets of the time, — ^schylus, Pindar, Simon- 

ides, and others, — whose works have in part come down to us; then 
Thuc. i; Aristotle, ^//^. Const. 2'^ i.; Plutarch, Themistocles^ Aristeides, 
and Cinion; Diodorus, xi. 

Modern Authorities 

The best continuous treatment of the subject is Holm, History of 
Greece, II, chs. vi-xii. 

(i) Western Greece : Holm, II, ch. vi; Yx^^vcLdiXi, History of Sicily, 
II, chs. vi, vii; Story of Sicily, ch. vi; Curtius, History of Greece, III, 
bk. iv, ch. iii; Grote, History of Greece, V, ch. xliii. 

(2) Eastern Greece: Holm, II, chs. vii-ix; Oman, History of 
Greece, ch. xxii, xxiii; Abbott, History of Greece, II, chs. vi-viii; Cur- 
tius, II, bk. iii, ch. ii; Grote, V, chs. xliv, xlv; Timayenis, History of 
Greece, I, pt. iv, chs. i-v; Cox, Athenian Empire, ch. i; Greek States- 
men,!: Aristeides, Themistocles, Pansanias; II: EpJiialtes, Kimon ; 
Botsford, Development of the Athenian Constitution, ch. xii. 

(3) Culture : Mahaffy, Survey of Greek Civilization, chs. iv, 7; 
Social Life in Greece, ch. v ff. (both of these books are interesting and 
suggestive); Holm, II, ch. xii; Murray, Ancient Greek Literature, 
chs. iv, ix; Jebb, Greek Literature (primer), pt. i, ch. iii; pt. ii, ch. i; 
Tarbell, History of Greek Art, ch. vii; E. A. Gardner, Handbook of 
Greek Sculpture, ch. iii. 




Pericles 

(Copied after Cresilas, a Cretan artist of the fifth century B.C. 
British Museum.) 



CHAPTER IX 



THE AGE OF PERICLES — GROWING ANTAGONISM BE- 
TWEEN OLIGARCHY AND DEMOCRACY (461-431 B.C.) 

We left the history of Sicilian affairs in 461 B.C. at the Sicily, 
time of the establishment of the independent republics. 461-431 b.c. 
Two years later, Ducetius, a bold and able chief of the Sicel ^* ^^^^ 
tribes of the interior, united his people into a nation and 
proceeded to capture one Greek city after another. He 
evidently aimed to conquer the whole island. Although 453 ^.c 
Acragas and Syracuse, by combined effort, managed to 
overthrow him, he regained his leadership, made an alli- 
ance with Syracuse, and was progressing rapidly in reunit- 
ing the Sicels, when his death relieved Sicily of great 

163 



164 



The Age of Pericles 



p. 246, 

Eastern 
Greece, 
461-431 B.C. 

Pericles. 



444 B.C. danger. Thereafter his people came rapidly under the 

influence of Greek civilization. The war with Ducetius 
was followed by a time of remarkable prosperity, in which 
the Greek cities of Sicily built many magnificent temples. 

Italy. Like the Sicels, the Samnites of the mountains in central 

Italy, joining their tribes in a strong federation, were pre- 
paring for a descent on the Greek settlements of the coast. 
This movement of the interior tribes against the coast cities 
was to continue for nearly two centuries and to affect the 
whole history of Italy and of the world. 

The history of eastern Greece during this period is 
crowded with events. With the assassination of Ephialtes 
and the ostracism of Cimon, Athens came under the leader- 
ship of Pericles. He was heir to the foreign policy of 
Themistocles and Ephialtes, to the constitutional principles 
of Aristeides, and to Cimon' s patronage of culture. For 
thirty years, chiefly through the office of general, which 
he often held, Pericles governed his city and its empire 
with almost autocratic power. Under his guidance Athens 
deserted the Peloponnesian League and allied itself with 
Argos and Thessaly, powers unfriendly to Lacedaemon. 
Megaris soon afterward came into alliance with Athens to 
protect itself against the encroachments of Corinth. With 
the consent of the Megarians, Athens occupied their two 
ports, Nisaea and Pegae, with troops. In this way the city 
of Pericles extended its commercial influence in the Saronic 
Gulf and opened a fine outlook westward through the Co- 

459 B.C. (?) rinthian Gulf. A little later, the helots of Mount Ithome 

P. 154. surrendered on the condition that they should leave Pelo- 

ponnese forever. Athens settled them at Naupactus, near 

the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf. These helots were a brave 

people and proved as faithful allies as Athens ever had. 

The activity of the Athenians in these years was astonish- 



Plut. Pericles. 
462 B.C. 
Thuc. i, 102. 

Thuc. i, 103. 



Athens Aggressive 



i6s 



ing. By sending two hundred triremes to Egypt to aid 
that country in its revolt from Persia, Athens aimed at once 
to strike a blow at her chief enemy and to secure an influ- 
ence over Egypt. As the Athenians were obliged now to 
import perhaps the greater part of their food material, they 
took an especial interest in the Nile valley because of its 
unrivalled productivity in grain. Soon after the departure 
of this great armament, war broke out between Athens on 
the one side and the ^ginetans, Corinthians, and some 
other Peloponnesians on the other. This was the first seri- 
ous disturbance of that peace among the Hellenes which 
their common resistance to Persia had brought about. The 
Athenians were victorious over their enemies by land and 
by sea — in Megaris and off yEgina. They then landed on 



Egyptian 
Expedition, 
459 B.C. 
Thuc. i, 104. 



War with the 
Peloponne- 
sians, 458 B.C. 

Thuc. i, 105 £. 



ATHEN"S AND PEIRAEU 

SHOWING LONG WALLS 




'BDrmay * Co.,J!T7^ * 



Explanation: It is uncertain whether the Phalerian Wall followed (i) or (2). 

that island and laid siege to the city. At the same time 
they began to build two long walls, — four and four and a " Long 
half miles in length, — one connecting Athens with Phale- ^ ^" 
rum, the other with Peirseus. Several years later they made Thuc. i, 107. 
a third wall parallel with the second mentioned, in order to 



1 66 



The Age of Pericles 



P. 157. 



Boeotian 
League 
restored, 
457 B.C. 
P. 130. 



457 B.C. 
Thuc. i, 107 f. 



have a fortified road to the sea. Their purpose was not 
only to secure communication between city and harbors in 
case of siege, but also to provide a place of safety for the 
country people with their movable property. They were 
right in thinking that as long as Athens maintained these 
walls and her naval supremacy, she was absolutely safe from 
every external enemy. The conservatives opposed this 
undertaking, as it indicated a willingness on the part of 
Athens to engage in war with her near neighbors; but their 
party had been so thoroughly disorganized by the ostracism 
of Cimon that it could make no open resistance. A few 
of their number intrigued with the Lacedaemonians, invit- 
ing them to interfere and stop the building of the walls. 
Because of their traitorous attachment to Sparta, the strong- 
hold of oligarchy, these Athenian conservatives were hence- 
forth called "oligarchs," a name odious to the patriots 
through its association with treason and conspiracy. 

It seems that the Lacedaemonians accepted the invitation 
of these oligarchs, for they immediately introduced a strong 
army into central Greece to check the progress of Athenian 
influence in that quarter. Since the war with Persia, 
Thebes had been in disgrace on account of her Medism, 
and had lost control of Boeotia. The Lacedaemonians, 
though opposed to all federations but their own, restored 
the Boeotian League, with Thebes at its head, as a counter- 
poise to Athens. The Athenians with their allies marched 
forth and engaged the Peloponnesians at Tanagra. This 
was the first actual battle ever fought between the Athenians 
and the Lacedaemonians. It was a bloody struggle, but the 
Athenians were worsted, partly because the Thessalian 
horse deserted to the enemy. 

The Lacedaemonians now returned home, leaving the 
Boeotians in the lurch. Two months later the Athenians 



The Continental Fedej-ation i6y 

under Myronides, an able general, again took the field and 

defeated the Boeotians at CEnophyta. Through this victory Thuc i, io8. 

Athens brought into her alliance all the towns of Bceotia -Athenian 

" Continental 

except Thebes, also Phocis, already friendly, and Locris. Federation." 
The Athenians expelled the oligarchs from the Boeotian 
towns and set up democratic governments favorable to 
themselves. This policy proved unwise. The banishment 
of an entire political party from so many towns created for 
Athens more enmity than friendship. But for a time every- 
thing went well, ^gina surrendered, dismantled her 456 b.c. 
walls, and entered the Delian Confederacy as a tributary 
state, paying thirty talents a year. About the same time 
Troezen and Achsea made an alliance with Athens. The 
Athenians were now at the height of their power. Their 
Continental Federation, which extended from the Isthmus 
to Thermopylae, included, in addition, not only Argos, 
Troezen, and Achsea in Peloponnese, but also Naupactus, an 
important station controlling the entrance to the Corinthian 
Gulf. If Athens could cement this great alliance, it would 
be in itself as strong as the Peloponnesian League. The 
^gean Sea was now an Athenian lake. The maritime em- 
pire whose resources Pericles commanded extended from the 
Black Sea to Caria and thence to Euboea. The Pelopon- 
nesians had no effective way of assailing this great power, 
while their own coasts were everywhere exposed to Athenian 
attack. But Athens soon experienced a dreadful misfortune. Disaster in 

The two hundred triremes sent to Egypt were taken by the ^sypt. 

^^ ^ ^ Thuc. i, 109 f. 

Persians. A reenforcement of fifty ships also came into 

their hands. This was the first great reverse of the 4548.0. 
Athenians. Their activity in recent years had been pro- 
digious; but they were now compelled from sheer ex- 
haustion to adopt a more friendly policy in relation to their 
neighbors. 



i68 



The Age of Pericles 



Five years' 
truce with 
Lacedaemon, 
451 B.C. 
Pericles. 



Thuc. i, 112. 



Cimon's 
death, 
449 B.C. 



Fall of the 
Continental 
Federation, 
447 B.C. 



The battle at Tanagra had its effect on Athenian politics. 
Through the mediation of Cimon's sister, Elpinice, — if we 
may trust a story told by Plutarch, — an agreement was en- 
tered into between Cimon and Pericles that 'the former 
should not interfere in internal politics, and that the latter 
should be willing to make peace with Sparta and allow the 
prosecution of the war with Persia. On these terms Peri- 
cles carried a decree recalling Cimon from banishment. 
The gallant conduct of Cimon's friends in the battle of 
Tanagra was the immediate occasion for this compromise. 
In 451-450 B.C. Cimon made for his city a five years' truce 
with Lacedaemon. At the same time Argos concluded peace 
with Sparta for thirty years. Cimon may have felt that a 
truce with Sparta, if even for a brief period, was very de- 
sirable, but he seems to have purchased it at too high a 
price. Athens should by all means have clung to her Argive 
alliance. However, the Hellenic peace left Cimon free to 
resume the war with Persia. In 449 b.c. he sailed with two 
hundred triremes to conquer Cyprus. But he died on the 
expedition, and though the fleet destroyed a strong Phoeni- 
cian armament, his project came to naught. His death was 
a great loss to the Athenians; he was thbir Nelson, the 
winner of more naval victories than any other Greek. In 
his lifetime Athens achieved her best in international poli- 
tics. After his death, the energies of his city were turned 
to internal improvement. 

The Athenian Continental Federation was short-lived. 
The oligarchic exiles invaded Boeotia, defeated the Athe- 
nians, and compelled them to evacuate the country. At the 
same time Athens lost control of Locris and Phocis. Then 
Euboea revolted, and a Peloponnesian army under King 
Pleistoanax invaded Attica. The Megarians massacred the 
Athenian garrison at Nisaea and joined the Peloponnesians. 



The Athenian Empire 169 

Pericles induced Pleistoanax to withdraw, possibly by 
bribing him, and then quickly reduced Euboea. Thus by 
his energy and diplomacy he rescued his city from extreme 
peril. Athens was exhausted, and needed a breathing-time. 

In 445 B.C. a truce for thirty years was made between the Thirty Years' 
two hostile powers. Athens gave up all her continental Truce, 

445 B.C. 

allies except Plataea and Naupactus. In other respects the xhuc. i, 115. 
status quo was preserved. Neither party was to interfere 
with the allies of the other, but alliances with strangers 
could be made at pleasure. All difficulties were to be 
settled by arbitration, yet unfortunately no means was pro- 
vided beforehand for this. Athens suffered most by the 
treaty, as she was not only excluded from Peloponnese but 
also lost control of the Corinthian Gulf and the Isthmus. 
She gained, on the other hand, an acknowledgment of her 
maritime supremacy. It is possible that a treaty was made 
about this date between Athens and Persia. At least, their 
relations with each other were peaceful from this time on 
for many years. 

We have seen in the preceding chapter how the allies of The 
Athens were gradually reduced to the condition of subjects. ^*^"i^^ 

° ■' maritime 

The change from confederacy to empire was completed by Empire, 
the transfer of the treasury from Delos to Athens, probably 454-431 e.g. 
in 454 B.C. Athena now became the protecting deity of P. 152. 
the empire. Only the Lesbians, Chians, and Samians re- Greenidge, 
mained free and equal allies of Athens; these had whatever pP' ^^9-204. 
forms of government they desired. The other states were 
required to make new treaties with Athens by which they 
adopted democratic constitutions, and agreed to send their 
important law cases to Athens for trial. Later statesmen 
and writers were generally of the opinion that the greatness 
of Athens in war and in peace depended upon the tributes 
from her allies. These revenues enabled the city of Peri- 



i^o The Age of Pericles 

cles to make its enormous contribution to civilization, to 
beautify itself with public works, to provide the citizens 
with magnificent festivals, to give remunerative employ- 
ment to most of its people, to build and maintain powerful 
fleets and the impregnable defences of Athens and Peiraeus. 

p. 271. Pericles planted many colonies in the allied states, which, 

besides serving as garrisons for the protection of the empire, 
furnished the poorer Athenians with lands. Thus both 
city and citizens were benefited by the empire. The allies, 
too, enjoyed the advantages of peace. Never before or 
afterward did they have equal opportunity for commerce or 

Cf. Thuc. for quiet country life. The annual tribute was more than 

viii, 24. balanced by an increase in wealth and prosperity. The 

commons, everywhere protected by Athens from the inso- 
lence of their own oligarchs, remained faithful. The mer- 
chants also were loyal because of the commercial advantages 
which the empire brought. Only the families which had 
once ruled their communities and the market-place poli- 
ticians were actively engaged in fomenting opposition to 
Athenian rule. To find fault was easy. It must have been 
inconvenient and expensive to carry suits to Athens, and 
the ruling city may have been too severe in requiring it; 
but it conduced to the internal peace of the empire, and 
probably gave justice to those who could not have expected 
fair treatment in the local courts. The Athenian empire, 
though defective, was the highest political development 

Thuc. iii, 47. which the Greeks had yet reached; undoubtedly the great 
majority in all the states of the empire were satisfied with 
it to the end. 

Thucydides, These imperial ideas of Pericles met with opposition. 

son of Thucydides, son of Melesias, was a near kinsman of Cimon 

Melesias j 1 • 

{not the ^"d h^^^ ^o his conservative principles. He was no soldier, 

historian). but a far more skilful politician than Cimon, and an effec- 



Athens and the West 171 

tive orator besides. Gathering up the shattered remnants Piut. /'<?w- 
of the conservative party, he led it in a last desperate attack ^^^"^* 
upon the policy of Pericles. He charged the democratic 
statesman with the transfer of the confederate treasury to 
Athens, and the use of the funds for the decoration of the 
city. The negotiations at Susa, the Persian capital, he ^- ^^• 
termed "paying court to the king," and set it down as trea- 
son to Greece. For a long time he opposed Pericles in the 
assembly on every public measure. Finally his party, rep- 
resenting Pericles as aiming at tyranny, risked everything 
on a vote of ostracism. The Athenians banished Thucydi- 442 b.c. 
des, and thus gave Pericles free scope for his policy at 
home and abroad. 

Soon afterward Samos revolted. This was an evil omen Revolt of 
for the empire, for the Samians had always been the most ^^^^ 
faithful allies and most zealous supporters of Athens. By- Thuci.nsif. 
zantium revolted also in sympathy with Samos, and there 
was danger of a general defection. Pericles acted with 
great energy. The Samians expected help from both Per- 
sia and Lacedaemon, but none came. The Persians were 
not ready, and Corinth had again prevailed upon Lacedae- 
mon not to interfere with Athens. After a nine months' 
siege Samos surrendered. It was deprived of its freedom P- ^4 ff- 
and compelled to pay the expenses of the war. Byzantium 
yielded without resistance. This success strengthened 
Pericles and made the empire more solid than before. 

While the Athenians were consolidating their empire in Athens and 

the West 

the ^gean, they were endeavoring to extend their influ- 
ence over western Greece. There was in this century a 
lively interchange of wares between Peirseus on one side 
and Italy, Sicily, and Carthage on the other. Pericles had 
scarcely come to power when Athens began to make treaties 
with western communities. Long before his time, Sybaris, 510 b.c. 



172 



The Age of Pericles 



445 B.C. 



Thurii, 
443 li-C. 



The 

Periclean 
democracy, 
461-431 B.C. 



^sch. 

Aga}}tetnnon, 
774 ff. 



^\ai\.o, Protag- 
oras, 322 C. 



the most opulent city of Italy, had been destroyed by the 
men of Croton. When peace was made between Athens 
and Lacedaemon, Pericles, at the request of the surviving 
Sybarites, sent thither a colony of Athenians and Pelo- 
ponnesians. The Sybarites were admitted to the new com- 
munity but were soon expelled because they insisted on 
being the aristocrats of the place. After this, Pericles reen- 
forced the settlement, now named Thurii, with colonists 
from various parts of Greece. He wished it to be consid- 
ered a pan-Hellenic enterprise under the conduct of 
Athens, but he failed in this as in all his endeavors to 
accustom the Greeks to regard his own city as leader. 
Thus it happened that the new colony, though democratic, 
acknowledged not Athens, but the Delphic Apollo, as 
founder. And, in general, it may be said that the course 
of events hindered Athens from forming a close political 
connection with the West till towards the end of the 
century. 

The strengthening of the empire and the extension of 
Athenian influence over Greece were but a part of the 
policy of Pericles. He desired also to give permanence to 
the ideas of political equality which had lately come into 
existence. In putting his wishes into effect he was aided 
by the best sentiment of the age. Nearly all the eminent 
men of his time were democrats. They insisted chiefly on 
the fact that the poor were as virtuous and as capable as the 
rich. "Justice shines in smoke-grimed houses and holds 
in regard the life that is righteous; she leaves with averted 
eyes the gold-bespangled palace which is unclean and goes 
to the abode that is holy." With such teachings ^schylus 
prepared the way for the Periclean democracy. " Any one 
who is just and reverent," said Protagoras, an eminent phi- 
losopher and friend of Pericles, " is qualified to give advice 



The Periclea7i De^nocracy 173 

on public affairs." Pericles had aided in the overthrow of 

the Council of the Areopagus. It was his conviction that 

the Athenians were no longer children in politics, that they 

had reached a maturity of experience which made them 

capable of governing themselves without the interference of 

a council which had come down to them from an oligarchic P. 42 ff. 

age. Pericles intended that the people should protect their Popular 

constitution by means of the supreme court which Solon had ^^P^"^"^^ 

• • 1 court. 

instituted. It was to contain six thousand jurors. These p, 54. 
were divided normally into panels, or smaller courts,^ of 
five hundred and one each. As cases were decided by a 
majority vote, the odd number was to prevent a tie. Origi- 
nally the archonswere judges and the courts simply received 
appeals from their decisions; but in the time of Pericles 
the archons had come to be mere clerks, who prepared 
cases for presentation to the courts and presided over these 
through the trial, with no power to influence the decision. 
The final stage in the decline of the archonship was reached Arist. Ath. 
in 457 B.C., when an act was passed admitting the zeugitae ^^^^^-"^ • 
to that office. As the archons declined, the jurors gained 
in importance. Their large number made bribery and in- 
timidation difficult. This was especially salutary as there 
was a tendency among Greek nobles to override the laws and 
trample upon the rights of common people. The Athenian 
jury system, on the other hand, was defective from the fact 
that it is easier to excite the feelings of a multitude than 
of a few persons. Then, too, these large bodies of men, 
taken for the most part from the less wealthy class and 
absolutely free from the control of a judge, often acted 
from political motives ; as they were intensely demo- 
cratic, an oligarch was not sure of fair treatment at their 
hands. 

^ Dicasieria, plural of dicasterium. 



174 



The Age of Pericles 



Nomothefae. 

Gilbert, 
p. 300 ff. 



Illegal 
proposals. 

Gilbert, 
p. 299 f. 

The juror's 
fee. 



Aristoph. 
Wasps, 300 ff. 



The legislative power resided chiefly in these courts. 
Once a year the nomothetae, a special body of sworn jurors, 
met and received from the Council of Five Hundred and 
the assembly proposals for new laws, and, after hearing 
them discussed, decided upon them by a majority vote. 
Laws thus made were distinguished from the decrees passed 
by the Council of Five Hundred and the assembly in their 
management of the current business of government.^ In 
addition to the legislative function, the courts protected 
the existing laws and constitution through their power to 
try any one who proposed an illegal measure. 

The introduction of a fee enabled the poorest citizen to 
attend to jury service. The juror's pay was that of an un- 
skilled day laborer or of an oarsman in the trireme. If 
frugally managed, it sufficed for the daily wants of a small 
family. 

Father. Is it not enough that I 

With this paltry pay must buy 
Fuel, bread, and sauce for three? 
Must I needs buy figs for thee ! 

Boy. Father, if the archon say 

That the court won't sit to-day, 
Tell me truly, father mine, 
Have we wherewithal to dine? 



But there was no pauper class in Athens at this time; nor 
did men wish to become jurors to avoid manual labor. 
They had been oarsmen and hoplites in their younger 
days, and now, for the most part too old to work, they were 
drawing their juror's fee as a kind of pension, for which 
indeed they were required to sit on the benches judging 
from early morning till late at night. 

1 Laws were novioi, plural of nomas, and nomotheta signifies law- 
makers; decrees vt^x^ psephismata, plural oi psephisma. 



The Judicial System 175 

The judicial system was the keystone in the democratic importance 
arch; the jurors were the supreme power in the Athenian ° ^ e courts. 
state and empire. 

Chorus of Jurors 

No kinglier power than ours in any part of the world exists. Comic 

Is there any creature on earth more blest, more feared, and petted from account of 

day to day, judicial 

Or that leads a happier, pleasanter life, than a justice of Athens, though business. 

old and gray? Aristoph. 

For first when rising from bed in the morn, to the criminal court Wasps, ^^f<^^. 

betimes I trudge. 
Great six-foot fellows are there at the rails, in anxious haste to salute 

their Judge. 
And the delicate hand, which has dipt so deep in the public purse, he 

claps into mine. 
And he bows before me and makes his prayer, and softens his voice to 

a pitiful whine. 
*********** 
So when they have begged and implored me enough, and my angry 

temper is wiped away, 
I enter in and take my seat, and then I do none of the things I say. 

*********** 
Some vow they are needy and friendless men, and over their poverty 

wail and whine, 
And reckon up hardships false and true, till they make them out to be 

equal to mine. 
Some tell a legend of days gone by, or a joke from ^sop witty and 

sage, 
Or jest and banter, to make me laugh, that so I may forget my terrible 

rage. 
And if all this fails, and I stand unmoved, he leads by the hands his 

little ones near. 
He brings his girls and he brings his boys; and I the judge am 

composed to hear. 
They huddle together with piteous bleats : while trembling above them 

he prays to me. 
Prays as to God his accounts to pass, to give him acquittance, and leave 

him free. 

There was no allowance to the citizens in this age for 
attending the assembly or the theatre; but the state pro- 



176 



The Age of Pericles 



Fees and 
food from 
the state. 
Gilbert, 
p. 342 ff. 



Assembly. 



Holm, ii, 
p. 197. 



Pp. 83, 124. 



Citizenship 
an office of 
power and 
dignity. 



vided food at the public religious festivals. Disabled per- 
sons received a small pension of an obol a day; hence 
there was no need of poorhouses. Payment for public 
duties, whether religious or political, tended to equalize 
the poor and the rich; it tended to the religious, intel- 
lectual, and political education of all the citizens and was 
thus a necessary factor in the growth of Attic civilization. 
An Athenian citizen was injured no more by being paid for 
public service than an American citizen now is. The sys- 
tem had its defects, but on the whole it worked well, as 
under its influence the Athenians became the most enlight- 
ened, humane, and moral people of Greece. 

The assembly was composed of all citizens above eighteen 
years of age who had the leisure and inclination to attend. 
There were four regular meetings in every prytany, or tenth 
of a year, with as many extraordinary sessions as were 
thought necessary. One meeting of each prytany was oc- 
cupied in examining the conduct of magistrates; and any 
one of them who was thought guilty of mismanagement 
could be deposed and brought to trial before a popular 
court. Thus the Athenian magistrates had only so much 
power and independence as the assembly was willing to 
grant them. With the confidence of the people the board 
of generals could do everything; without their support it 
was helpless. All measures brought before the assembly 
must indeed have been previously considered by the Coun- 
cil of Five Hundred, but members of the assembly could 
offer amendments at pleasure. The Athenians had no 
master; they acknowledged no authority but the laws which 
they and their fathers had made. There was no higher or 
more dignified office than that of the citizen who attended 
the assembly and law courts ; he was at once a legislator, a 
judge, and an executive officer. There was almost no pri- 



The Generals 



177 



vate life in the Athens of Pericles. The citizen was called Thuc. ii, 40. 
upon as was no other in the ancient world to find his larger 
interests in those of the state. In the assembly and in the 
courts the Athenians received an education in law and in 
statesmanship such as has been granted to but a select few 
in other states, whether ancient or modern. 

By far the most important magistrates in this century Thegenerals. 
were the generals. They commanded the army, and were creenidge, 
ministers of war, of the P- 182 f. 

navy, of finance, and 
of foreign affairs. In 
electing the generals, 
the people might leave 
them all equal in power 
or confer all the author- 
ity on one. The gener- 
als must be in constant 
communication with the 
assembly. For this pur- 
pose the gift of speaking 

was necessary, and that general who was at the same time an 
orator was naturally leader of the board. Through this 
office Pericles ruled Athens and her empire with a power 
which surpassed that of kings and tyrants. He derived his ^\^x\.PericIes. 
authority not from demagogic arts or even from his superior 
eloquence, but rather from his acknowledged ability and in- 
tegrity. " He was able to control the multitude in a free 
spirit; he led them rather than was led by them; for, not 
seeking power by dishonest arts, he had no need to say Thuc. ii, 65. 
pleasant things, but, on the strength of his own high char- 
acter, could venture to oppose and even to anger them. 
When he saw them unseasonably elated and arrogant, his 
words humbled and awed them; and, when they were de- 

N 




Magistrates 

(From the Parthenon Frieze. ) 



Pericles aS 
general. 



178 



The Age of Pericles 



Narrowness 
of the 
Athenian 
democracy. 



Slavery. 



Alien 
residents 
or " metics." 



Dependent 

allies. 



The 

Athenians a 
closed caste. 



pressed by groundless fears, he sought to reanimate their 
confidence. Thus Athens, though still in name a democ- 
racy, was in fact ruled by her greatest citizen." 

The chief defect in the Periclean system was its narrow- 
ness. There were perhaps thirty thousand voters in Attica 
at this time. The total number of Athenians, including 
women and children, was about a hundred thousand. Under 
these in rank were thirty thousand alien residents, and, at 
the lowest estimate, a hundred thousand slaves. From this 
it is evident that all men in Attica were by no means free 
and equal. Slavery was an essential condition of the Athe- 
nian democracy, as it gave the citizen leisure for attend- 
ing to public affairs; yet it was a monstrous evil. However, 
it may be said that, so far as our knowledge goes, the slave 
at Athens was treated better even than the common citizen 
in oligarchic states. An evil only second in magnitude to 
slavery was the permanent exclusion of alien residents from 
the citizenship. Many of their families had resided in 
Attica for generations; and had they been admitted to all 
the privileges of citizenship, they would undoubtedly have 
given the state a vitality and a breadth of base sufficient for 
its preservation and success in the long war which was soon 
to come. The narrowness of the Athenian system is seen 
further in the relation between Athens and her allies, who 
were now in reality subjects. However loyal an allied state 
might be, its citizens were given no hope of ever securing 
the Athenian franchise. Thus the whole body of Athenian 
citizens had become aristocrats, were now living at the ex- 
pense of the many over whom they ruled, and were taking 
pride in their exclusive privileges of birth. Finally, by 
refusing to intermarry with any other Greeks, the Athe- 
nians made of themselves a closed caste. Pericles brought 
this about by his law of 451 B.C., which restricted the citi- 



Internal Improvements 



179 



zenship to those whose parents were both Athenians. This 
narrowness was more pernicious to Athens than all the 
calamities of war which ever befell her. 




The Acropolis of Athens 



Bormay, C<i.,K. Y, 



In the years of peace between 445 and 431 b.c, Pericles Internal im- 
directed his attention to internal improvements. In this P'""^'e"^ents, 

445-431 B.C. 

period Athens achieved her best in architecture and in 
sculpture. Pericles wished his city to become a "School 
of Hellas"; he aimed by adding a broad and symmetrical Thuc. ii, 4of. 
education to the natural endowments of the Athenians to 
make of them a race of men whom other Greeks would re- 
gard as distinctly superior in mind and in soul. Thus he 
hoped to establish for his countrymen a, natural claim to 
sovereignty over Hellas. One of the means of effecting 
this end was a beautiful environment. The Acropolis con- The 
tinned after him, as before, to be the home of the gods who ^^^°P°''s- 
protected the city, especially of Athena. Ceasing now to 



i8o 



The Age of Pericles 



P. 157. 



Abbott, 

Pericles, 
p. 296 ff. 



be the military stronghold of Attica, it became the artistic 
centre of Greece. Under the administration of Pericles, the 

Athenians commissioned 
the architects Ictinus and 
Callicrates to build a 
Parthenon, or temple to 
Athena (literally maiden's 
chamber), on the substruc- 
ture made for the purpose 
by Cimon. It was com- 
pleted, sufficiently at least 
for use, by the year 438 b. c. 
It included two principal 
apartments : the smaller, 
also termed the Parthe- 
non, which served as a 
treasure-room for the god- 
dess and for the city; and 
the larger, named the 
Hecatompedos because it 
was a hundred feet in 
length, containing the 
great statue of the god- 
dess in ivory and gold by 
Pheidias, the most famous 
sculptor of all time. Phei- 
dias also superintended 
the making of the sculptures which adorned the temple. 
In the eastern pediment was a group of statues represent- 
ing the birth of Athena, full-grown and armed, from the head 
E. A. Gardner, of Zeus : "The scene is in heaven, the time sunrise, and so, 
while Selene, the Moon, descends with her chariot at the 
right corner of the pediment, Helios rises with his team 




Athena Parthenos 



p. 280. 



A rch it e dure 1 8 1 

from the sea at its left corner. Facing the rising horses of 
the Sun is a noble reclining figure familiarly known as The- 
seus." Unfortunately, Zeus and Athena, the central statues, 
have been destroyed. The group in the western pediment 
represented the victory of Athena over Poseidon for the P. 25 f. 
possession of the city. These are the best sculptures which 
have come down to us from ancient Greece, though we 
cannot say that they are absolutely the best which the 
Greeks ever produced. In them the natural and the ideal 
meet. " To study the execution of the Parthenon pedi- E. A. Gard- 
ments is the liberal education of artists; to imitate it, the "^^. P-282. 
despair of sculptors." The Parthenon frieze is a band of 
relief nearly four feet in width around the temple within 
the colonnade. The reliefs of the frieze represent the 
Great Panathenaic festival held in honor of Athena every 
four years in the month of July. The scene is a unit, yet 
with endless variety of detail. It shows marvellous skill in 
execution and a grace and finish which have never been 
rivalled. Most of the existing Parthenon sculptures were 
brought to England early in this century and are now in the 
British Museum. The temple as a whole is in the Doric Doric and 
style, the form of architecture which prevailed in European ^°"^^ ^^^'^^ 
Greece, while the Ionic belonged rather to Asia Minor. Curtius, L. 
The beauty of the Doric style is severe and chaste; that of P-72f. 
the Ionic is characterized by greater freedom and more 
abundant ornamentation. The spirit of this temple, says 
Curtius, is intellectual liberty duly balanced and con- 
trolled. It is perhaps the most nearly perfect piece of 
architecture ever created by human hands. 

The protecting deities of the city in contrast with the Erech- 
empire were Athena Polias and Erechtheus, who was in t^^'"™- 
some vague way identified with Poseidon and was at the 
same time thought of as an ancient king of the city. Of 



l82 



The Age of Pericles 



all the gods whom the Athenians worshipped these were the 
most venerable. It was probably Pericles who began to 
rebuild the Erechtheium, the temple in which their cult was 
united; but the work was not completed till after 409 B.C. 




Propylaea, 
437-432 B.C. 



Erechtheium 

(Showing the Porch of the Maidens.) 

This temple was the centre of the religious life of the Athe- 
nians. Here were Poseidon's salt spring and Athena's' 
olive tree; also a wooden image of the goddess, held in 
especial reverence, and a sacred lamp kept burning night 
and day. The temple was in Ionic style, and is noted for 
its beautiful floral ornamentation of the honeysuckle pattern. 
Modern artists are attracted by the Caryatids, or statues of 
maidens, substituted for columns in its south porch. 

At the entrance to the Acropolis on the west, the archi- 
tect Mnesicles built a magnificent portal, called the Propy- 



A rcUitechire 183 

laea. Near it on the Acropolis was a temple to "Wingless " 
Victory. From this spot the Athenians could see ^gina Holm, ii, 
and the whole Saronic Galf, the Isthmus, the citadel of P" ^^^" 
Corinth, and the Argolic peninsula. Let the observer but 
descry a hostile gathering of ships along this great extent 
of coast, and the men of Athens would swarm to Peiraeus 
and put to sea in a few hours with a hundred triremes or 
more. 

One of the most conspicuous works of art on the Acropo- Athena 
lis was a colossal bronze statue of Athena, the so-called Promachus. 
"Promachus" (Champion Goddess) by Pheidias, perhaps 
fifty feet high including the pedestal. It may have 
stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon. The Pausanias, 
goddess held in her hands an erect spear and a shield ^' ^^" 
outstretched. The statue was made from the spoils of 
Marathon and expressed the calm dignity and courage of 
the heroes who won the victory there. 

Northwest of the Acropolis on a rocky terrace is the so- "Theseium.' 
called Theseium, a great temple in Doric style, at present 
the best-preserved piece of ancient Greek architecture. It 
is unknown whether this is really a temple to Theseus or 
to one of the great gods, perhaps Hephaestus, or whether 
Cimon or Pericles had it built. Cimon had conquered the piut. Cimon. 
island of Scyrus, had brought thence the reputed bones of 
Theseus, and had built for them a shrine, though possibly 
not this great temple. The Athenians regarded Theseus 
as the founder of their state, a great and good king who p. 26. 
protected the oppressed. Hence his shrine became a place 
of refuge for slaves who suffered from ill-treatment at the 
hands of their masters. South of the Acropolis Pericles 
built the Odeium. It was semicircular in form with a Odeium. 
pointed, tent-like roof whose rafters were masts of Persian 
vessels taken at Salamis. The Odeium was a memorial hall 



1 84 



The Age of Pericles 



commemorating the victory of Salamis. In it were held 
the musical contests of the Great Panathensea. 



P. 141 f. 

Eleusinian 
mysteries. 
P. 97 f. 








" Theseium " 
(From the Northeast.) 

It will be noticed that all these works of art were con- 
nected with the worship of the gods. As Pericles wished 
to make the Athenian religion, and especially the Eleusinian 
mysteries, pan-Hellenic, the Council of Five Hundred and 
the assembly, with the approval of the Delphian Apollo, 
decreed that all the Athenians and their allies should bring 
the first fruits of their corn as an offering to the temple of 
Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis. At the same time 
they made an earnest appeal to all Hellas to do likewise. 
It is doubtful whether any state outside of the Athenian 
Empire responded favorably to this invitation, although in- 
dividuals may have done so. The various attempts of Peri- 
cles to unite all Greece under Athens failed because the 
Greek cities preferred absolute independence and had no 



Literature 185 

sympathy with Athenian imperialism. It was not till P. 172, 
Athens lost her political ambition that she became the in- P- 284. 
tellectual and moral head of Greece; and this did not 
happen till the next century. 

The life of the Periclean age expressed itself in literature Literature. 
as well as in sculpture and architecture. It was at this time 
that Herodotus, the "father of history," lived. An exile Herodotus. 
from his native city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, he 
spent his life in travel, in residence at Athens, in the social 
circle of Pericles, or at Thurii, in Italy. He visited nearly 
all of the known world and everywhere collected from the 
natives interesting stories of persons and events. These he Murray, 
wove into a history of the war between Greece and Persia. '^^*' ^' 
In tracing the causes of the conflict by way of introduction, Jebb, 
he gives the history of the world from mythical times down P* ^'^^ 
to the war itself. He wrote his work to be read aloud, as 
the poems of Homer had been, at public gatherings. This 
helps us to understand why his style is so simple and so 
interesting. He repeats the stories as they were told him, 
because his hearers could not appreciate historical criti- 
cism. Many of his tales are myths or fictitious anecdotes; 
but they are all valuable, as they illustrate the character of 
nations and of individuals. Herodotus was one of the 
fairest and most large-minded of historians. Though 
uncritical, though he takes little interest in politics, or in 
the deeper causes of events, yet his picture of the world of 
his time and of the mind and nature of mankind in the 
many countries which he visited makes his work perhaps the 
truest, as it certainly is the most interesting, of all histories. 

The drama reached in this age the highest point of devel- The drama, 
opment. It had been originally a chorus of persons dressed Develop- 
like satyrs, who sang and danced in a circle in honor of the "^^"^' 
god Dionysus. Thespis of Athens was the first to have the 



1 86 



The Age of Pericles 



Murray, 
chs. ix, xi. 



Gildersleeve. 



Sophocles. 



P. 159 ff. 



Philosophy. 
Zeno. 
Cf. p. 95 f. 



leader of the chorus recite stories to the audience at inter- 
vals while the dancers were resting. Later poets introduced 
an actor who talked with the chorus leader, and in this way 
the song was supplemented by a dialogue, ^schylus, it is 
said, increased the number of actors to two, and Sophocles, 
his successor, added a third. Thus the Greek drama de- 
veloped from the chorus, which, though declining with the 
growth of the dialogue, still remained important. The 
function of the chorus was " to breathe forth the fire and 
shed the tears of the play." 

Sophocles was the great dramatic writer of the Periclean 
age. Though he had neither the gigantic strength nor 
the bold originality of yEschylus, he was a more careful 
artist. His plot was far more intricate, his language more 
finished and subtle, and his religious beliefs, in contrast 
with those of ^schylus, were serene. His best extant play, 
the CEdipus Tyrannus, tells how CEdipus, King of Thebes, 
though a just and pious man, brought utter ruin upon him- 
self and his household by unintentional sin. Sophocles had 
few new ideas, but the absolute beauty and symmetry of his 
dramas — the perfect balance of form and substance — 
mark him as the ideal Greek. The drama, which is the 
highest form of Greek literary art, " the fairest flower that 
bloomed on the rock of Athena," he represents at its best. 

Among the philosophers who were friends of Pericles 
was Zeno, the Eleatic. He was the discoverer of " dialec- 
tic," the art of searching for truth and detecting error by 
systematic discussion, — 



Plut. Pericies. . The two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who 

Say what one would, could argue it untrue. 

Dialectic, which was especially adapted to the Greek genius 
for conversation, was to become the chief philosophical 



Athenian Character 187 

method of the future. But the man who is said to have had 
the greatest influence on Pericles was Anaxagoras of Clazo- Anaxagoras. 
menae in Ionia. He was the first Greek to declare that the 
world was ruled by Intelligence. This was the power, he Marshall, 
taught, which ordained beforehand how all things in the • ^' ^^' 
universe should be arranged. These wise friends of Peri- 
cles found in him perhaps as liberal a patron of art and 
learning as has ever lived. His estimate of Athenian edu- Estimate of 
cation and character is well worth considering. "Our ^} ^"^^" 

character. 

city," Thucydides represents him as saying, "is equally 
admirable in peace and in war. For we are lovers of the Funeral 
beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the ^ ^^.^^^ °^ 

■^ ^ Pericles, 

mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not Thuc. ii, 
for talk and ostentation, but when there is a real use for it. 38-46. 
And we have not forgotten to provide our weary spirits 
many relaxations from toil; we have regular games and 
sacrifices throughout the year; at home the style of our life 
is refined; and the delight which we daily feel in all these 
things helps to banish melancholy. Because of the great- 
ness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon 
us; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely 
as of our own. 

" We alone do good to our neighbors, not upon a calcu- 
lation of interest, but in the confidence of freedom and in 
a frank and fearless spirit. To sum up : I say that Athens 
is the school of Hellas, and that the individual Athenian in 
his own person seems to have the power of adapting him- 
self to the most varied forms of action with the utmost 
versatility and grace. . . . And we shall assuredly not be 
without witnesses; there are mighty monuments which will 
make us the wonder of this and of succeeding ages." 

But the era of peace was rapidly drawing to an end. Pericles' 
Troubles first arose within the state. The moderate policy troubles. 



1 88 The Age of Pericles 

of Pericles pleased neither the oligarchs nor the extreme 
democrats. His enemies not daring, under fear of ostra- 
cism, to attack him directly, assailed his friends one after 

'?\vx.Pericles. another. First they prosecuted Pheidias for embezzling 
some of the gold entrusted to him to be used in gilding the 
statue of Athena for the Parthenon. Although he was ready 
to prove his innocence by having the metal taken off and 
weighed, they threw him into prison, where he died of 

Prosecution sickness. Then to punish Anaxagoras for his attachment 

of his friends. ^^ Pericles, they drove him from Athens by threatening to 
prosecute him for impiety. About the same time Aspasia 
was indicted for impiety and immorality. She was a Mile- 
sian by birth, a woman of remarkable intellectual endow- 
ments. Pericles had divorced his wife, the mother of his 

Aspasia. two sons, and had taken Aspasia to his house, though his 

own law of 451 B.C. forbade him to marry an alien. She 
became the, teacher of artists, philosophers, and orators — 
the inspiring genius of the Periclean social circle. But 
the Athenians, who in this age had come to believe that a 
woman must be restricted to the house and must talk with 
no one outside of her own family, regarded Aspasia' s con- 
duct as immoral. They complained especially because 
their own wives went to the house of Pericles and learned 
the ideas and manners of this foreign woman. Happily 
Pericles by personal entreaty induced the judges to acquit 
her. While he was thus beset by private difficulties, war 
with Peloponnese began to threaten. 

Sources 

Reading. To the student of history Sophocles, as he rarely mentions events, 

is less valuable than ^schylus. Herodotus, who lived at this time, 
wrote only of the past. Our chief source is Thuc. i, ii; then Plut. 
Cinion and Pericles ; Diodorus, xi, xii. The buildings, sculpture, and 
inscriptions still preserved bring us into immediate contact with the age. 



Bibliography 



189 



Modern Authorities 

(i) Western Greece: Holm, History of Greece ^ II, ch. xxv; Free- 
man, History of Sicily, II, ch. vii; Story of Sicily, ch. vii; Curtius, 
History of Greece, III, bk. iv, ch. iii; Grote, History of Greece, VII, 
ch. Ivii; Allcroft and Masom, History of Sicily, ch. v. 

(2) Eastern Greece : Holm, II, chs. xiii-xx; Oman, History of 
Greece, chs. xxiii-xxv ; Abbott, History of Greece, II, chs. ix-xi; Peri- 
cles and the Golden Age of Athens; Curtius, II, bk. iii, ch. iii; 
Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. iv, chs. vi-viii; Grote, V, chs. xlv, 
xlvi; VI, ch. xlvii; Allcroft, The Making of Athe7ts,chs.\yi-x\\\,yi\; Cox, 
Athenian Empire, ch. ii; Greek States?nen, II; Ephialtes, Kimon, and 
Perikles; Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles ; Lloyd, Age of Pericles, 
2 vols.; Gilbert, Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens, 
p. 416 ff.; Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Constitutional History, ch. 
vi; Botsford, Development of the Athenian Constitution, ch. xii; Cun- 
ningham, Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects, bk. ii, ch. ii; 
Mahaffy, Survey of Greek Civilization, ch. v; Social Life in Greece^ 
chs. vi-viii; Murray, Ancient Greek Literature, chs. vi, viii, xi; Jebb, 
Greek Literature, pt. ii; Marshall, History of Greek Philosophy, ch. vi; 
Tarbell, History of Greek Art, ch. viii; E. A. Gardner, Handbook of 
Greek Sculpture, ch. iii. 




Lapith and Centaur 

(Parthenon Metope.) 




Victory 

(By Pseonius, about 420 B.C. Olympia.) 

CHAPTER X 

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR TO THE END OF THE 
SICILIAN EXPEDITION (431-413 B.C.) 

Causes of the BEFORE the year 431 B.C., a great majority of the com- 

^^^* munities of Greece had been brought under the leadership 

P. 169. of Athens or of Sparta. The peace of 445 B.C. was to last 

for thirty years; but scarcely half of that period had elapsed 

when war broke out between the two powers. The causes 

of the war were various. First, there were certain contrasts 

190 



Causes of the War 191 

of character which prevented the Peloponnesians and the Contrasts of 
Athenians from sympathizing with each other. There was c^a^^^t^r. 
a natural race enmity; the nucleus of the Peloponnesian 
League was Dorian, that of the Athenian Empire was Ionic. 
Then, too, the Peloponnesians were mainly agricultural; 
only Corinth, Sicyon, and one or two of their other com- 
munities were extensively engaged in trade, while most of 
the cities of the Athenian Empire were commercial and 
industrial. Thus in their mode of life the two powers 
were utterly unlike. There was as great a contrast in gov- 
ernment : most of the Peloponnesian communities were P. 79. 
oligarchic; those of the Empire were mainly democratic. 
This was an especial cause of trouble, since the oligarchs 
in the democratic states of the Empire were continually 
plotting to set up oligarchies in their own communities, 
relying upon help from Lacedaemon. But the greatest con- 
trast of all was to be found in the organization of the two 
powers : the Peloponnesian system was a loose confederacy 
of independent states; the Athenian, an empire composed 
mainly of tributary cities. Grecian feeling favored the Thuc. i, 68, 
Peloponnesian system and regarded Athenian imperialism ^^^' "' ^* 
as tyranny. It was therefore as champion of Hellenic free- 
dom that Lacedaemon engaged in the war. 

The interests of the two powers also conflicted. For Conflicting 
more than a century Sparta had been acknowledged as interests, 
the chief city of Hellas. She had liberated many Greek 
communities from tyrants and now professed to have freed 
Hellas from the Persian yoke. With all this in her favor, Thuc i, 122. 
Sparta still claimed the right to leadership in Greece. But 
immediately after the war with Persia, Athens appeared as 
a rival for the leadership. The alliance between the two 
powers was broken in 462 e.g., and in the interval between 
that date and 445 b.c. they actually came to blows. The 



192 



The Peloponnesian War 



Athens and 
Corinth. 



Thuc. i, 120. 



Corinth and 
Corcyra. 

Thuc. i, 24 ff. 



435 B.C. 



Athenian al- 
liance with 
Corcyra. 



Athenians also professed to have saved Greece in the war 
with Persia; they asserted that they were the most powerful 
of the Greeks, and the most worthy to rule, inasmuch as 
they always treated their subject states with the greatest 
fairness and justice. In reply to these claims, the Pelo- 
ponnesians declared that Athens was a tyrant, and that it 
was their duty to put down tyranny in whatever form they 
found it. 

Athens had trouble also with particular states of the 
League. The usual relations between Athens and Corinth 
had been extremely friendly; but since the war with Per- 
sia, Peiraeus was monopolizing the commerce of the seas, 
and Corinth found herself painfully cramped in her trade. 
There was danger, Corinth alleged, that the Athenians might 
cut Peloponnese off from all communication with the rest 
of the world. Furthermore, Athens was interfering between 
Corinth and her colony, Corcyra. The latter community, 
though not a member of the Peloponnesian League, was in 
some measure dependent on Corinth. The mother and 
daughter cities quarrelled over the possession of a joint 
colony, Epidamnus, on the mainland. Corinth, after ex- 
periencing a severe defeat at the hands of the Corcyrseans 
in battle, procured the aid of several Peloponnesian allies 
in preparing a great armament with which to overwhelm the 
undutiful colony. Hereupon Corcyra sent envoys to 
Athens to ask an alliance. Corinthian ambassadors also 
came, and the two parties pleaded their respective causes 
before the Athenian assembly. It was probably with the 
advice of Pericles that the Athenians resolved to make a 
defefisive alliance with Corcyra. Pericles believed a war 
with Lacedaemon inevitable, — " he saw a cloud of war 
lowering from Peloponnese;" he felt that the Corcyraean 
navy must be secured for Athens by all means, and counted 



Causes of the War 193 

on the great advantage which the new ally would bring his 

city in her trade with Italy and Sicily. In accordance Battle off 

with the decree, a small Athenian fleet sent from Athens ^yt)ota, 432 

B.C. 

aided the Corcyraeans in defending their island from the 
great Corinthian armament. Whether or not Athens tech- 
nically broke the treaty is a matter of indifference. The 
Corinthians were justly angry for this interference between Pp. 84, 171. 
themselves and their colonists, especially as they had sev- 
eral times prevented the Peloponnesians from interfering 
in Athenian affairs. Corinth asserted that Athens broke 
the treaty, and now exerted all her energy to stir up the 
Peloponnesians to war against the offender. It is probable 
that, had Athens and Corinth remained friendly, the Pelo- 
ponnesian war would have been deferred for a long time or 
wholly averted. Apparently, then, Pericles was responsible 
for the war. 

Immediately after the trouble with Corcyra, Corinth Athens and 
began to urge Potidsea to revolt. This was a Corinthian Po^ids^^- 
colony in Chalcidice, now tributary to Athens. Corinth P. 36. 
garrisoned the place; it revolted, and so did the other 
Chalcidians. Most of these dismantled their own cities Thuc. i, 56ff. 
and gathered at Olynthus, in order that they might more 
effectually defend themselves. As the Potidaeans resolved 
to hold out in their own city, the Athenians laid siege to 
it. The Corinthians alleged, without just ground, that this 
was another violation of the treaty of 445 B.C. They per- Peloponne- 

suaded the Lacedaemonians to call a congress of the League ^'^" ^°^" 

gress. 

to consider the various grievances against Athens. The 
Lacedaemonians invited the deputies to bring their com- 
plaints before the Spartan assembly. Among those who had 
grievances were the Megarians. Athens owed them a p. 168. 
grudge for massacring her garrison in 446 B.C., and had 
recently paid it by passing an act which excluded them 
o 



194 The Peloponnesian War 

from the ports and markets of Attica and of the empire. 
This, also, the Megarians averred, was a violation of the 
treaty of 445 B.C. King Archidamus advised caution: it 
would be wise to obtain a redress of grievances by negotia- 
tion; at any rate, time might thus be gained for prepara- 
tion. In its present condition the Peloponnesian League, 
he maintained, was no match for the Athenian Empire. 
But the ephor Sthenilaidas overrode the judgment of the 
king, and persuaded the assembly to vote that the Atheni- 
ans had violated the treaty. The real ground for this de- 
cision, says Thucydides, was not the complaints of the allies, ' 
but alarm caused by the remarkable growth of the Athenian 
Declaration power. The Peloponnesian congress ratified the decision 
o war, 432 ^f ^j^g Spartan assembly, and voted for war against Athens. 

B.C. 

To gain time for preparation, the Lacedaemonians sent 
Thuc. i, 88, embassies to Athens, one after another, with various de- 
mands: that the Athenians should rescind the Megarian 
decree; that they should expel Pericles, because his family 
p. 46. was under a curse ; that they should grant independence to 

the communities of their empire. To all these demands 
Athens turned a deaf ear. Pericles had long been prepar- 
ing for war, and he had reasons for believing that Athens 
would be successful. 
Athenian re- Her empire was now about as large as ever, and far more 
sources. strongly consolidated. Among her independent allies 

were Chios and Lesbos, Thessaly, Platsea, Corcyra, Nau- 
pactus, Acarnania, the Amphilochians, and Zacynthus; in 
Italy, Neapolis and Rhegium; in Sicily, Leontini and Se- 
Thuc. i, 19; gesta. Athens had thirteen thousand heavy-armed troops 
ii, 9, 13, 62. ^^^ ^ larger force for garrison service ; she had three hun- 
dred triremes of her own besides those of the allies, and 
her sailors were the best in the world. The Athenians 
commanded the sea and its resources. The tributes from 



sources. 



Beginning of the War 195 

their subject cities, together with other revenues, amount- 
ing in all to about a thousand talents a year, would be 
nearly enough, in case of siege, to support the whole Attic 
population on imported food. The plan of Pericles was 
to venture no battle with the Peloponnesians, but to bring 
the entire population within the walls, to allow the devas- 
tation of Attica, and to damage Peloponnese as much as 
he could with his fleet. In this way he hoped to wear out 
the enemy and to win a more favorable peace perhaps than 
that of 445 B.C. 

All the Peloponnesian states, except Argos and a part of Peioponne- 
Achsea, were in alliance with Lacedaemon; and outside of 
Peloponnese, the Megarians, Boeotians, Phocians, Locrians, 
Ambraciots, and some others; in Sicily and in Italy most Thuc. i, 141- 
of the Dorian cities sympathized with Sparta. The few ^"^'^ "' 9- 
commercial states of the League provided ships; the others, 
land forces only. The League could muster an army of 
twenty-five thousand heavy-armed men. No power in the 
world was a match for it in a pitched battle, but it could 
not be held together long, as each soldier had to carry his 
provisions with him from his farm. The Peloponnesians 
relied mainly on the devastation of Attica for bringing 
their enemy to terms. They supposed that one or two 
summer campaigns, of a few weeks each, would effect the 
desired object. 

The war opened in the spring of 431 b.c. A band of First event of 
Thebans was admitted by treachery to Plataea with a view *^^ ^^''' 
to bringing this community back into the Boeotian League, p. 24. 
But the Plataeans overpowered the intruders and took cap- 
tive one hundred and eighty of them. After promising on Thuc. ii, 2-6. 
oath to spare the lives of these prisoners, — at least, as the 
Thebans themselves afterwards declared, — the Plataeans put 
them to death. This incident is characteristic of the war. 



196 



The Peloponnesian War 



From the beginning the opposing parties were inhumane 
and vindictive in their treatment of prisoners. The Pelo- 
ponnesians killed all whom they captured at sea, including 
traders and neutrals. On the other side, certain ambas- 
sadors from Peloponnese were taken on their way to the 
Persian king, delivered to the Athenians, and put to death 
without trial. Generally, captives were killed unless spared 
for some especial diplomatic reason. This war checked 
the growing humanity of the Greeks. 

In the first year of the war, King Archidamus, at the 
head of a Peloponnesian army, devastated Attica, and the 
Athenians ravaged the coasts of Peloponnese. These opera- 
tions were repeated nearly every year through the early part 
of the war. The removal of the country people to Athens 
Thuc. ii, 12- was very painful. They were distressed at exchanging the 
homes and shrines which they loved for the crowded city, 
where most of them could find no comfortable shelter, but 
must live — 



Invasion of 
Attica. 



17 



Aristoph. 
Knights, 
792 ff. 



Cf. p. 187. 



Plague at 
Athens, 430 
B.C. 



In a barrack, an outhouse, a hovel, a shed, 

In nests of the rock where the vultures are bred, 

In tubs, and in huts, and in towers of the wall. 

No wonder that they were angry with Pericles, when they 
saw their homes and orchards ruined by the Peloponnesians. 
However, that he deemed his policy on the whole success- 
ful appears from the Funeral Oration which he delivered 
in the autumn over those who had fallen in the campaigns 
of the year. In this oration, Pericles set forth the high 
principles on which the Athenian political and social sys- 
tem rested. Thucydides gives us the substance of the 
speech, though not the exact words. 

The next year Athens and Peiraeus were visited by a 
plague, which inflicted more terrible damage than the 
severest defeat in battle would have done. The people 



Cleon 197 

suffered because they were crowded together and lacked the 
comforts of life. The medical science of the time was 
powerless to cope with the evil. Although this dreadful Thuc. ii, 47- 
calamity called forth heroism, — many risked their lives to ^''* 
attend their friends, — its total effect was thoroughly de- 
moralizing. The Athenians blamed Pericles for both war 
and plague, and gave vent to their grief and anger by fining 
him heavily. But soon they repented and again elected 
him general with absolute power. The story of the war 
during this year is of little interest. 

In the following year Pericles died from the effects of Death of 
the plague, and the leadership of the state passed into the P^"'^^^^- 
hands of Cleon, a tanner. Though no general, he had 429 e.g. 
a remarkable talent for finance and was an orator of great 
force. In the main he followed the policy of Pericles. Holm, ii, ch. 
As the surplus in the treasury was soon exhausted by the ^''"^' 
war, the state levied a direct tax, and Cleon made himself 
very unpopular with the wealthy by his ruthlessness in col- 428 b.c. 
lecting it. Aristophanes, the comic poet, represents him 
as addressing Demus {i.e. the citizen body) as follows: — 

O Demus ! has any man shown such a zeal, Aristoph. 

Such a passion as I for the general weal? Knights, 

Racking and screwing offenders to ruin; 773 ff. 

With torture and threats extorting your debts; 
Exhausting all means for enhancing your fortune. 

He was equally vigorous in prosecuting officials for appro- 
priating public funds; so that no man of the time was so 
thoroughly disliked by the "better class." 

Cleon (to an opponent) . — 

I'll indict ye, I'll impeach, • Aristoph. 

I'll denounce ye in a speech ; Knights, 442. 

With four several accusations. 
For your former peculations 
Of a hundred talents each. 



198 



The Peloponnesian War 



429 B.C. 



Revolt of 
Lesbos. 

Thuc. iii, 
2-14, 25-50. 



427 B.C. 



Cleon and 
Diodotus. 



The more energetic he was in providing ways and means 
for the war, the more the nobles hated him. They could 
not endure to see this upstart from the industrial class at 
the head of the government, compelling them to pay in 
taxes the expenses of a war they did not favor. 

There were for several years no important engagements 
on land, but the Athenian admiral, Phormion, gained con- 
trol of the Corinthian Gulf by two brilliant naval victories. 
In 428 B.C. the oligarchs of Lesbos induced Mytilene and 
all the other cities of the island, except Methymna, to 
fevolt. This was ominous for Athens. There was danger 
that all the maritime cities would follow the example of 
Lesbos. But the Peloponnesians were too slow in sending 
the promised aid, and the Athenians made desperate efforts 
to conquer the island. Finally, as a last resort, the oli- 
garchs of Mytilene armed the commons for the defence of 
the city, and these promptly surrendered to Paches, the 
Athenian commander. Thereupon he sent the oligarchs, 
who alone were guilty of revolt, to Athens, and kept guard 
over the other Mytilenseans, awaiting the judgment of the 
assembly. The Athenians were angry because the Lesbians 
had revolted without cause; they feared, too, for the safety 
of their empire and, indeed, for their own lives. Under 
the excitement of the moment, they decreed to kill all the 
men of Mytilene and to enslave the women and children. 
A trireme was despatched to Lesbos with the message of 
death. Cleon was the author of this policy of terrorism 
toward the cities of the empire; he wished to make an 
example of the Lesbians so that the other communities 
would fear to revolt. But on the next day the decree was 
reconsidered in the assembly. A certain Diodotus, in op- 
posing Cleon's policy, declared that it was unwise to de- 
stroy the innocent commons along with the guilty oligarchs: 



Platcea 



199 



" If you punish all without distinction, you will drive the 
commons to take part with the nobles, and thus you will 
have no friends whatever among the allies — you will meet 
everywhere with united resistance and hatred." The opin- 
ion of Diodotus prevailed, and a second trireme reached 
Lesbos in time to countermand the bloody decree of the 
day before. But the thousand Lesbian oligarchs at Athens 
were put to death. The Athenians were severe enough in 
their punishment for rebellion without going the whole 
length of Cleon's desires. In putting down the Lesbian 
revolt, Athens passed the dangerous crisis and was again 
undisputed mistress of the ^gean. 

Somewhat later in the summer, Plataea, after a two years' Surrender of 
blockade, surrendered to the Lacedaemonians. The Athe- P'^*^^- 
nians in all that time did not stir in behalf of their loyal 427 b.c 
allies, although it was possible to rescue them by a vigor- 
ous attack on the blockading line. Two hundred Platgeans Thuc ii, 71- 
with a few Athenians fell into the hands of the enemy, and '^ ' "'' ^^~ ' 
were put to death on the ground that they had done no ser- 
vice to the Peloponnesian League in the present war. In 
reality they were sacrificed to the enmity of Thebes, whose 
citizens now came into possession of their territory. There 
was no essential difference between the Athenians and 
the Lacedaemonians in the treatment of prisoners and of 
conquered populations. 

In this year Athens came near losing Corcyra. The oli- Sedition in 
garchs of that place, by massacring the council, overawed °^^y^^- 
the commons and made their state neutral in the war. But 
they did not long retain the upper hand. Between nobles 
and commons a war broke out, in which even the women 
took part. The sedition lasted several days. Many were 
killed from motives of personal enmity or of greed. 
"Every form of death was to be seen. The father slew his 



200 



The Peloponnesian War 



Thuc. iii, 
80-81. 



Character of 
the conflict 
between oli- 
garchy and 
democracy. 



Thuc. iii, 
82-83. 



Demos- 
thenes in the 
West. 



son, and suppliants were torn from the temples and slain." 
But with the help of the Athenians the commons finally 
triumphed. Corcyra now became of especial value to 
Athens, as she began at this time to send aid to her Sicilian 
allies against their enemies.. 

The war was becoming more and more a conflict between 
oligarchy and democracy; and in this character it threw all 
Hellas into commotion. In time of peace the two parties 
generally lived in harmony, but the war brought to the 
Hellenic cities two conditions which favored sedition : first, 
the possibility of obtaining help from outside, as the Pelo- 
ponnesians and the Athenians were ready to come to the 
assistance of their respective parties; and, second, the 
restlessness and daring occasioned by the hard times. 
These seditions brought into play the worst elements of 
Greek character. Reckless daring was held to be loyal 
courage; prudent delay, the excuse of a coward. Modera- 
tion was now regarded as the disguise of unmanly weakness, 
while frantic energy came to be esteemed as the quality of 
true manhood. Good faith vanished and oaths ceased to 
bind. Party morals were at a low ebb. The leaders, while 
professing noble aims, were grasping for wealth, power, 
and revenge. Both factions committed the most monstrous 
crimes, either by open violence or by judicial murder. 
Both factions, careless of religion, applauded success even 
if it was achieved by the most perfidious means. 

In 426 B.C. the war began to turn decidedly in favor of 
Athens. Demosthenes, a general of this year, was the 
ablest Athenian commander since the days of Themistocles 
and Cimon. Though he failed in an attempt to conquer 
wj^tolia, he defeated with great slaughter the Ambraciots, 
who were helped by the Lacedaemonians, and thus gave 
Athens a brilliant reputation and the military superiority 



Pylos 



201 



in the western part of central Greece. The next year he Seizure of 
seized Pylos, on the west coast of Peloponnese, and forti- ^^'°^* 
fied it. This became a thorn in the side of Sparta, — a 425 b.c. 
refuge for helots and a good basis for ravaging Laconia. It 
was a promontory with an excellent harbor protected by the 
island of Sphacteria. Demosthenes held the place against Thuc. iv, 
repeated attacks of the Peloponnesians. They had made ^~^^' 
their usual invasion of Attica, 
but quickly departed on hear- 
ing of the seizure of Pylos. 
Athens did not understand the 
cause of this sudden withdrawal, 
and was still more surprised by 
the arrival of an embassy from 
Sparta soon afterward, begging 
for peace. The Lacedaemo- 
nians had landed a select body 
of troops on Sphacteria, and 
had tried to carry Demosthenes' 
position by storm. The attempt had failed; the besiegers 
found themselves blockaded by an Athenian fleet; and 
now, to save the troops on the island, they made a truce 
with Demosthenes with a view to negotiating for peace. 

The envoys from Sparta requested the Athenian assembly Negotiations 
to appoint a committee to consider with them terms of ^°" peace. 
peace. Cleon opposed secret negotiation, for, he said, it 
was simply a plan to gain time. Let the envoys say openly 
what they are willing to do. His own wishes were clear; 
the Lacedaemonians should restore Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, 
and Achsea, and on this condition Athens would make 
peace for any length of time. Thus Cleon wanted to regain 
for Athens what she had lost by the treaty of 445 b.c. But P. 169. 
the negotiations came to naught. Cleon can hardly be 




202 



The Peloponnesian War 



Cleon and 
Nicias. 



Capture of 
Sphacteria. 

42s B.C. 



P. 152. 



Athens be- 
gins to lose 
424 B.C. 



blamed for the stand which he took, especially in view of 
the fact that Sparta had no power to bind her allies; a gen- 
eral peace could be made only with the consent of the 
Peloponnesian council. It is not improbable that the 
Lacedaemonians merely wished to gain time. Winter would 
compel tlie Athenians to raise the blockade. 

Cleon' s chief opponent at Athens was Nicias, leader of 
the conservatives, who constituted the peace party. Nicias 
was a good officer, but too slow and stupid to lead an army 
or a political party. His chief recommendations were his 
respectable birth, his great wealth, his honesty, and his 
religion. He always kept a soothsayer about him, and fol- 
lowed the omens conscientiously without regard to the dic- 
tates of common sense. Instead of conducting reenforce- 
ments to Demosthenes, which was his duty as general, he 
surrendered his office to Cleon in the hope that the latter 
might meet with defeat at Pylos, and thus come to the end 
of his political career. But Cleon, on arriving at Pylos 
with reenforcements, wisely placed himself under the com- 
mand of Demosthenes. The latter captured the troops of 
Sphacteria and brought them home, two hundred and 
ninety-two in number — as valuable a cargo as ever entered 
Peiraeus. Though this success was due to Demosthenes, 
Cleon reaped the fruit of the victory. He was given the 
highest honors of the state, and his opinion prevailed on 
all questions in the assembly. The victory strengthened 
the hold of Athens on the empire, and enabled her to raise 
the tribute to a thousand talents, nearly double the former 
amount. This measure increased the Athenian resources 
for war. 

The next year Nicias captured the island of Cythera. 
From it the Athenians cut off the commerce of the Lace- 
daemonians and ravaged the Laconian coast wherever they 



Bra si das ' 203 

pleased. They also took Nisaea and came near capturing 
Megara. But this was the culmination of their success; 
from this time they began to lose ground. The Sicilian 
cities, terrified by the news of such victories, made among 
themselves a peace which excluded Athens altogether from 
military interference in the island. More serious far than 
this, a certain Spartan officer named Brasidas discovered 
the one vulnerable point in the Athenian empire — Chal- 
cidice. This was the only part of the Athenian dominion 
outside of Attica which could be reached by land. Brasi- 
das asked the Lacedaemonians for a force to lead in that 
direction. They gave him a few hundred allies and manu- 
mitted helots. They wished to be rid of the helots and Brasidas. 
could easily spare Brasidas, who, though young, was fond 
of giving them military advice. But he proved to be an Thuc. iv, 
exceptionally able commander and diplomatist. Though ^^ " 
arriving late in the autumn, he won over Perdiccas, king 
of Macedon, to the Peloponnesian alliance, and induced 
several cities of the empire to revolt, — among them Am- 
phipolis, the most important city in that region. His suc- 
cess was due in part to the negligence of Thucydides, the 
historian, — who as general commanded a small fleet in 
that quarter of the ^Egean, — and in part to his diplo- 
matic skill and to the fairness of his terms. The cities 
which revolted became independent members of the Pelo- 
ponnesian League. 

In this year the Athenians formed a plan in conjunction Battle at De- 
with the democrats of the Boeotian towns to gain possession ''""^• 

° 424 B.C. 

of all Boeotia. The plan failed, however, through mis- 
management, and the Athenians suffered a severe defeat at 
Delium. Although the opposing armies were equal in Thuc iv, 
numbers, the Boeotians won by massing their men in a 89-101- 
heavy phalanx twenty-five deep against one part of the 



204 



The Peloponiiesian War 



p. 273. 

Truce for a 
year. 



423 B.C. 

Battle at 
Amphipolis. 



Peace of 

Nicias. 
421 B.C. 



Thuc. V, 
14-20. 




Athenian Knights 

(From the Parthenon Frieze.) 



Athenian line, which was uniformly eight men deep. Thus 
the Thebans had already made a beginning of that peculiar 

tactic organization 
which in the next cen- 
tury was to destroy the 
military power of Sparta. 
During the next year 
a truce between Athens 
and Sparta was made 
through the influence of 
Nicias. It was every- 
where observed except 
by Brasidas in Chal- 
cidice. His repeated 
violations of it caused a renewal of the war in 422 b.c. 
In this year Cleon, who had been elected general, tried to 
regain Amphipolis, but was defeated and slain. Brasidas 
was killed in the same battle. The death of these two men 
removed the chief obstacles in the way of peace. 

Both Athenians and Lacedaemonians desired peace. 
The conservatives at Athens, who from the beginning had 
opposed the war, were brought into office by the defeat at 
Delium and Cleon' s recent failure before Amphipolis. 
Nicias, now the most eminent man at Athens, was their 
leader. The Lacedaemonians, for their part, were bitterly 
disappointed by the results of the war. They had hoped to 
crush the power of Athens in a few years at the most, but 
had suffered at Pylos the greatest reverse in their history; 
they had lost Cythera, and now saw their lands continually 
ravaged, their helots deserting, and their League threaten- 
ing to dissolve. The thirty years' truce with Argos was 
about to expire, and there could be no doubt that this state 
would soon be counted among the allies of Athens. Lace- 



Peace of Nicias 205 

daemon was anxious also to recover the prisoners taken at 
Sphacteria, since many of them were no ordinary troops, 
but pure Spartans. Nicias carried on the negotiations as 
representative of his city, and the peace accordingly bears 
his name. It was concluded in the spring of 421 b.c. The 
essence of the treaty was the restoration of the relations 
which had existed before the war. This seemed at the 
time to be just, as the strong positions which Athens held 
in the enemy's country were offset by her recent defeats — 
at Delium and Amphipolis. Subsequent events, however, 
proved that Athens lost greatly by the peace. 

It was to last fifty years and was to extend to the allies Failure of the 
on both sides. But those of Lacedaemon, who had not been P^^^^- 
consulted in the matter, now refused their assent. The 
Corinthians, Megarians, and Boeotians desired some con- Thuc. v, 21 ff. 
cessions from Athens in return for the ten years' war. The 
Lacedaemonians, however, did their best to carry the treaty 
into effect. They ordered that the Chalcidic cities be 
delivered up to the Athenians; but Clearidas, their com- 
mander in that region, would not obey, alleging as an 
excuse his inability to coerce these cities. In reality, he 
had aided them in their revolt, and had no desire to undo 
his own work. The Athenians then refused to perform 
their part of the agreement. The Lacedaemonians saw that 
they could enforce the peace only in the closest union with 
Athens; accordingly they offered her a defensive alliance. 
They were to help Athens in regaining the places lost in 
the war, and Athens was to help them against the helots. 
Nicias and his party welcomed this offer; it seemed to 
them that the dream of Cimon was to be realized, and that P. 154 f- 
at last Athens and Sparta were uniting to control the des- 
tinies of Greece. The Lacedaemonians now recovered the 
captives taken at Sphacteria; but as they failed to restore 



206 



The Peloponnesian War 



Aristoph. 
Achar7iians, 
247 ff. (first 
acted in 
425 B.C.) 



the Chalcidic towns, Athens refused to withdraw her gar- 
risons from Pylos and Cythera. Though the agreement was 
imperfectly carried out, the two cities did not directly at- 
tack each other for seven years, and the Athenians enjoyed 
the peace while it lasted. They returned to the country 
and began again the cultivation of their little farms, pleased 
to be at length free from their long confinement behind the 

walls. ^ , , , T. , , ... 

« O blessed Bacchus, what a joy it is 

To go thus unmolested, undisturbed, 

My wife, my children, and my family, 

With our accustomed joyful ceremony. 

To celebrate thy festival in my farm. 



New alii 
ances. 



Aristophanes represents a conservative old Athenian farmer 
as saying this with reference to the rural festival in honor 
of Dionysus, or Bacchus, which he was about to celebrate 
on the return of peace. 

The Peloponnesian League was falling to pieces. Several 
states in it which disliked the Lacedaemonians feared that 
Thuc.v,27ff. the union between Sparta and Athens would bring slavery 
to themselves. Elis and Mantineia, which were democratic, 
made alliance with Argos; while Megara and Boeotia, 
because of their oligarchic governments, were inclined to 
remain friendly with Lacedaemon. Now Lacedaemon, by 
concluding a separate alliance with Boeotia, had broken her 
agreement with Athens. When it became known in Athens 
that the treaty with Sparta was a mere farce, the war party 
again came into power. One of its leaders was Hyper- 
bolus, a manufacturer of lamps, Cleon's successor. Un- 
fortunately we know him only through his political enemies, 
who have undoubtedly distorted his character. As he be- 
longed to the industrial class and had no notable ancestry, 
he was despised by the gentility and ridiculed by the con- 
servative comic poets. Though Hyperbolus made himself 



Hyperbolus 

Holm, ii, 
p. 401. 




^GINA 
(Temple of Athena in the distance.) 



Alcibiades . 207 

hated by his prosecution of officials charged with embezzle- 
ment and by his advocacy of war with Sparta, there is no 
reason for doubting that he was a man of integrity and of ' 
fair ability. 

Another leader of a very different character was Alcibia- Alcibiades. 
des. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Athens Thuc.v, 43 ff.; 
and was a near kinsman of Pericles. Though still vouner, P^^^^'^'^^- 

^ / &' Alcibiades, 

he was influential because of his high birth and his fascinat- 
ing personality. His talents were dazzlingly brilliant in all 
directions; but he was lawless and violent, and followed no 
motive but self-interest and self-indulgence. Through his 
influence Athens allied herself with Argos, Elis, and Man- 
tineia against the Lacedaemonians and their allies. The 
armies of these two unions met in battle in 418 b.c. The 
Lacedaemonians, who still had the best organization and 
discipline in Greece, were victorious. This success wiped 
out the disgrace which had lately come upon the Lacedae- 
monians and enabled them to regain much of their former 
influence in Peloponnese. Argos and Mantineia now made 
peace with Lacedaemon apart from Athens. This must 
have brought Alcibiades some loss of popularity; and ap- 
parently Hyperbolus hoped under the circumstances to pro- 
cure the ostracism either of Nicias, the advocate of an 
unprofitable peace with Lacedaemon, or of Alcibiades, the 
author of the recent defeat. But Nicias and Alcibiades 
turned the tables: combining their political forces, they 
ostracised Hyperbolus. The Athenians must have felt that 
ostracism was now an obsolete and unnecessary institution, 
for they never made use of it again; and as for the political 
leaders, they began to seek other less dangerous means of 
assailing opponents. 

In the following year, the Athenians sent a fleet against Conquest of 
Melos, now the only ^gean island outside of the empire. ^ °^" 



2o8 The PelopOTinesian War 

It was a colony from Lacedaemon, but had continued neu- 
Thuc. V, tral till forced into hostility by Athenian attacks. When 
^~^^ ' • the armament arrived, the commanders held a conference 
with the magistrates and other leading men of Melos. The 
Athenians endeavored to prove that the voluntary surrender 
of Melos would be advantageous to both parties. They 
asserted that there could be no neutrals in the ^gean, — 
it belonged to them, with all the islands in it. If they 
failed to take possession, this would be regarded as a sign 
of weakness on their part. They insisted that the strongest 
had a right to rule — a principle well established, as they 
said, among men and gods. Their own rule, they main- 
tained, was justified by their moderation towards inferiors; 
thus the Melians, if they became subjects, would be required 
merely to pay an annual tribute. The Melians, on the other 
hand, relying on the hope of help from the gods and the 
Lacedaemonians, refused to yield. But they were disap- 
pointed. The Athenians blockaded the island and starved 
the inhabitants into surrender. They then killed all the 
men of military age and enslaved the women and children. 
They were justified by Hellenic law in conquering the 
island, but the barbarous slaughter of the conquered, 
though common in that age, has proved an indelible stain 
on the good name of Athens; for we must remember that 
in their humanity, as well as in their intelligence, the Athe- 
nians were among the foremost peoples of antiquity. 
Sicilian Ex- In the winter of this year the Athenians turned their 
pedition. thoughts once more to western Greece. Notwithstanding 

415-413 B.C. 

the recent treaty in Sicily, the old allies of Athens in that 
island were being injured by their enemies. Syracuse had 
expelled the democrats from Leontini, a neighboring Ionic 
city; and Selinus, relying upon the support of Syracuse, 
was encroaching on Segesta, a foreign community in alii- 



The Sicilian Expedition 209 

ance with Athens. Segesta then asked help of Athens for 
itself and for Leontini. It promised to pay the expenses 
of an expedition and deceived the Athenians as to the 
amount of its own wealth. They, on their part, were urged 
by Alcibiades to undertake the conquest of Sicily. His 
motive was undoubtedly selfish — to open a field in which 
he might display his talents and win fame. The project 
was altogether unwise, for the Athenians could do little 
more than hold their empire together and defend it against 
the Peloponnesians. Morever, even if they should gain 
control of Sicily, there was little hope that they would be 
able to retain it. Athens could not become, like Rome, a 
great conquering power, chiefly for two reasons : first, she 
was strong only in her navy, and hence must restrict her 
empire to coasts and islands; and second, the Athenian 
state was inexpansive, — that is, it rarely bestowed the fran- P. 178 f. 
chise upon aliens, and consequently never acquired a suf- 
ficient number of citizens for supporting an extensive 
imperial system. Nicias, in the assembly, strongly advised Thuc. vi, 
the Athenians to drop all thought of the undertaking. He "^'^' 
told them they ought to stay at home and guard themselves 
against their near enemies. The Chalcidians were still 
unsubdued; with some of their neighbors the Athenians 
were actually at war, and with others — for example, the 
Boeotians — they were under a truce terminable at ten days' 
notice. The treaty with Lacedsemon, he continued, was 
little more than a name — the Athenians could maintain it 
only by keeping their resources well in hand. The Lace- 
daemonians felt the disgrace of the treaty and would break 
it as soon as they were given any prospect of success. No 
danger could come to Athens from Sicily, even if it should 
all unite under Syracuse. The Athenians, he said in con- 
clusion, ought not to follow the advice of a young spend- 



210 



The Peloponnesian War 



Prepara- 
tions. 



Acharn^ 
544 ff- 



Mutilation of 
tlie Hermse. 

Thuc. vi, 
27-29. 



thrift (meaning Alcibiades), who had wasted his property 
in training horses for the Olympic games and now wanted 
to make up the loss at the expense of the state. But the 
warnings of Nicias were unheeded. The Athenians made 
ready in the spring of 415 B.C. to send a magnificent land 
and naval armament to Sicily. Aristophanes tells us how 
in Peiraeus the preparations for such an expedition 

Filled the city with a noise of troops : 
And crews of ships, crowding and clamoring 
About the muster-masters and paymasters; 
"With measuring corn out at the magazine, 
And all the porch choked with the multitude ; 
With figures of Athena newly furbished, 
Painted and gilt, parading in the streets; 
And wineskins, kegs, and firkins, leeks, and onions; 
With garlic crammed in pouches, nets, and pokes; 
With garlands, singing girls, and bloody noses. 
Our arsenal would have sounded and resounded, 
With bangs and thwacks of driving bolts and nails, 
With shaping oars, and holes to put the oars in; 
With hacking, hammering, clattering, and boring. 
Words of command, whistles, and pipes, and fifes. 

Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, an able officer of the 
school of Pericles, were to conduct the expedition. To 
say nothing of the evils of the divided command, the char- 
acters of Nicias and Alcibiades were so utterly incompatible 
as to give no prospect of harmony in the councils of war. 

One morning, when the armament was nearly ready to 
sail, the Athenians were horrified to find that the archaic 
statues of Hermes, which stood everywhere throughout the 
city at the doorways of temples and private houses, and 
which they held in great reverence as the venerable guardi- 
ans of peace and public order, had been nearly all mutilated 
in the night. The city was overwhelmed with terror. It 
was feared that a band of secret conspirators had attempted 



The Departure 21 1 

to deprive Athens of divine protection and would next try 
to overthrow the government. Some, though without good 
cause, suspected Alcibiades of this impiety. A court of 
inquiry was appointed to investigate the matter. It failed 
to discover the perpetrators of this sacrilege, but learned 
that certain men, among them Alcibiades, had been pro- 
faning the Eleusinian mysteries by imitating them for 
amusement in private houses. Alcibiades in vain de- 
manded a trial. His enemies feared that he would be ac- 
quitted through the support of the soldiers, with whom he 
was very popular. It would be safer, his opponents thought, 
to wait till the armament had departed and then recall 
Alcibiades for trial. Their opposition to him was intensi- 
fied by the fear that the success of his expedition would 
bring him too much power for the good of the state. 

The armament was to gather at Corcyra. The whole The depar- 
Athenian population thronged the wharves of Peiraeus to *"^^* 
watch the departure of the imperial city's contingent of 41S b.c. 
a hundred galleys. The moment was full of tears and 
prayers, of anxiety and hope. The flower of Athenian 
strength was going forth to war, and some surmised that it 
would return no more. 

Men were quite amazed at the boldness of the scheme and the Thuc. vi, 
magnificence of the spectacle, which were everywhere spoken of, no 31 f. 
less than at the great disproportion of the force when compared with 
the enemy against whom it was intended. Never had a greater expe- 
dition been sent to a foreign land ; never was there an enterprise in 
which the hope of future success seemed to be better justified by actual 
power. 

When the ships were manned and everything required for the 
voyage had been placed on board, silence was proclaimed by the sound 
of the trumpet, and all with one voice before setting sail offered up the 
customary prayers; these were recited, not in each ship, but by a single 
herald, the whole fleet accompanying him. On every deck both officers 
and men, mingling wine in bowls, made libations from vessels of gold 



212 The Peloponnesian War 

and silver. The multitude of citizens and other well-wishers who were 
looking on from the land joined in the prayer. The crews raised the 
Paean, and when the libations were completed put to sea. After sail- 
ing out for some distance in single file, the ships raced with one 
another as far as ^Egina; thence they hastened onwards to Corcyra, 
where the allies who formed the rest of the army were assembling. 

One hundred and thirty-four triremes and a great number 
of transports and merchant ships assembled at Corcyra 
with five thousand heavy-armed men on board, besides 
light auxiliaries and the crews. Hellas had seen larger 
fleets than this, but none so splendid or so formidable. 
About the middle of the summer it began its voyage across 
the Ionian Sea to the headland of lapygia. 

Plans of the But the Western Greeks now gave Athens a cold reception. 

commanders. £ygj^ Ionian Rhegium, which had always been friendly. 

Thuc. VI, ... 

44 ff. would not admit the Athenians within its walls. The great 

armament seemed a menace to the liberties of all alike. 
It soon appeared, too, that Segesta could furnish little sup- 
port. The generals, greatly disappointed by such news, 
were in doubt as to what they should do. Lamachus wanted 
to attack Syracuse immediately; but Nicias preferred to 
display the fleet along the Sicilian coasts and then return 
home. Either plan would have been good; but Alcibiades 
proposed instead to win over as many Sicilian cities as 
possible by negotiation. Though Alcibiades had a genius 
for diplomacy, in this instance he miscalculated; the Greeks 
of the West could not be won over by mere discussion. 
This unwise course, however, was adopted. Yet before it 
had been followed far, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens 
for trial. He was to return in his own ship, and the official 
galley which had brought the summons was to accompany 
him. But on arriving at Thurii, Alcibiades made his es- 
cape to Peloponnese, whereupon the Athenians sentenced 
him to death. The trick of his opponents had succeeded 



Siege of Syracuse 



213 



— probably to their satisfaction; but it had made of Alci- siege of Syr- 
biades the most dangerous enemy that Athens ever had. acuse. 

Nicias, who now held the superior command, trifled 414-413 e.g. 
away the autumn in half-hearted undertakings and then 
wasted the winter at Catana. Meantime the Syracusans 
were enclosing their city with strong walls. In the spring 
the Athenians entered the Great Harbor and laid siege to P. 35. 
Syracuse; they began to build a wall which would, if com- 
pleted, cut the city off from communication by land with 
the rest of the island. They were successful in several 
minor engagements; but in one of these Lamachus was 
killed, and with his death the command lost all its energy. 
Still, the Syracusans were hard pressed and there was talk 
among them of surrender, when the face of affairs was sud- 



PLAN 




Bormoj Jr C'j.,N.Y. 



a. Athenian naval camp. 

b. Athenian fort. 

c. Height in the rear of the Athenian 

line. 
</, d. Athenian wall. 
k, I. Unfinished part of Athenian 

wall. 
n, n. Ancient wall of Syracuse. 
;//, in. New wall of Syracuse 

(415 B.C.). 
h, h. Third Syracusan cross-wall. 



denly changed by the arrival of the Spartan Gylippus. He 
came with a small force and with the promise of a larger 
one then preparing in Peloponnese. The Syracusans were 
greatly encouraged by the thought that the mother country 
was taking an interest in them and that they had a real 



214 '^^^ Peloponnesian War 

Spartan, a heaven-appointed leader, to direct the defence. 
The Lacedaemonians had sent him at the suggestion of 
Gyiippus. Alcibiades, who was now in their city. Gylippus was a 
man of remarkable prudence and activity, and well ac- 
Thuc.vi, 104; quainted with western Greece. The Syracusans immedi- 
^^'' ^ ' ately took the offensive; they built and maintained against 

the besiegers a cross wall extending from their outer line 
of defence on the north to the height in the rear of the 
Athenian position. This prevented the besiegers from fin- 
ishing the northern part of their wall and secured a free 
communication with the country. At the same time the 
Syracusans were acquiring a navy sufficiently strong to ven- 
ture battle with the Athenian fleet. There was no longer 
any reasonable hope of taking Syracuse; and Nicias would 
gladly have raised the siege, but dared not face the Athe- 
nian assembly after so great a failure. In the winter he 
wrote a letter to Athens, giving a detailed account of the 
situation and asking that either the armament be withdrawn 
or strong reenforcements sent. He wished also to retire 
from command on account of illness. But the Athenians 
would take no thought of abandoning the enterprise, and 
prepared to send nearly as large a land and naval force as 
the original one, and this, notwithstanding the fact that 
the war with Lacedaemon was now openly resumed. 
Agls invades In the spring of 413 B.C. Agis, king of the Lacedaemoni- 
Aitica. ^,j^g^ jg^ ^^ army into Attica, which for twelve years had 

Thuc. vii, seen no enemy. Not content with ravaging the country, 
18-19:27-28. j^g seifed and fortified, at the suggestion of Alcibiades, 
Deceleia, a strong position in the north of Attica. The 
Lacedaemonians continued to hold it winter and summer 
to the end of the war. The Athenians could now do no 
farming except under their very walls. They were obliged 
to keep perpetual watch about the city to prevent surprise, 



Rttin of the Armament 215 

and their slaves deserted to the enemy in great numbers. 
But though they were themselves thus practically besieged by 
land, they sent out to Syracuse a new fleet of seventy-three 
triremes and five thousand hoplites commanded by Demos- 
thenes, their ablest general. They were following up their 
scheme of Sicilian conquest with fatal persistence. De- 
mosthenes, on his arrival at Syracuse, found the army in a Demos- 
sorry plight and the fleet already defeated in the Great thenes at Syr- 
acuse. 
Harbor by the Syracusans. He came just in time to save 

the besieging force from ruin. Demosthenes saw that the 

Athenians must either resume active operations at once or 

abandon the siege. He attempted immediately, in the 

night, to take the Syracusan cross wall by surprise, but was 

repulsed with great loss. He then advised Nicias to put 

the army on board and sail away. But Nicias delayed for Ruin of the 

some days. When finally he consented and everything was ^^^^"'^^ ^^- 

■^ ■' JO mament. 

ready for embarking, there was an eclipse of the moon, 413 b.c. 
which filled Nicias as well as the soldiers with superstitious 
fears. He would remain twenty-seven days longer, to avoid 
the effect of the evil omen. A man of sense would have Time, vii, 
explained to the soldiers that the omen was intended for ^'^ ' 
the enemy, but so much could not be expected of Nicias. 
Before that time had elapsed the Athenians lost another 
naval battle, and the disheartened crews would fight no 
more. The Athenians then burned their ships and began 
to retreat by land, Nicias in advance and Demosthenes 
bringing up the rear. The two divisions were separated 
on the march and both were compelled to surrender after 
severe losses. Probably forty thousand men had taken part 
in the Sicilian expedition, and twenty-five thousand were 
left to begin the retreat. Demosthenes and Nicias were 
both put to death. Many of the captives were sold into 
slavery; many were thrown into the stone quarries near 



2l6 



The Pelopoii7tesia7i War 



Reading. 



Syracuse, where they for the most part perished of expos- 
ure and starvation. The failure of the Sicilian expedition 
was due to several causes, but chiefly to the stupidity and 
the superstition of Nicias. It compelled the Athenians at 
once to abandon all hope of conquering other peoples, and 
to consider instead how, with the small resources still re- 
maining, they could save themselves and their empire 

from ruin. 

Sources 

Thucydides, ii-vii, a detailed narrative by an able contemporary 
writer. Aristophanes, Comedies. Aristotle, Ath. Const. 28. Plutarch, 
Pericles^ Nicias^ and Alcibiades. Diodorus, xii, xiii. 



Modern Authorities 

Holm, History of Greece, II, chs. xxi-xxv, xxvii. Oman, History of 
Greece, chs. xxvi-xxxii. Cox, Athenian E??ipire, chs. iii-v; Greek 
Statesmen, II : Phorinion, Archidamus, etc. Allcroft, Peloponnesian 
War, chs. i-viii. Timayenis, History of Greece, I, pt. iv, ch. ix; 
pt. V, chs. i-v. Curtius, History of Greece, III, bk. iv, chs. i-iv. 
Gxoie,- History of Greece, VI, ch. xlvii, VII, ch. Ix. Whibley, Politi- 
cal Parties in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. 



Vx 




\ 



A Trireme 
(From a relief, National Museum at Athens.) 




Euripides 

(Vatican Museum, Rome.) 

CHAPTER XI 

THE NEW LEARNING AND THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE 
WAR (413-404 B.C.) 

As the politicians and the generals, by their ambitious Philosophy 
schemes and their gross mismanagement, had brought Ath- ^" ^ ^ ^^^ ^' 
ens to the verge of ruin, the imperial city, now turning to 
her educated men, placed in them her hope of salvation, p. 232. 
To understand this new attitude of the state, it is necessary 
to follow the development of thought through the latter half 
of the fifth century B.C. 

The philosophers with whom we have already become The New- 
acquainted, from Thales to Heracleitus, busied themselves ^^'""'"s- 
with attempting to explain how the world came into exist- P. 94 ff. 
ence, of what it was composed, and what was the one law 
which governed it. Although later thinkers proposed new 

217 



2l8 



The New Learning 



Sophistry. 



Rhetoric. 



Corax and 
Teisias. 



and better answers to these great questions, still all were 
alike engaged in a one-sided study of nature; instead of 
ascertaining facts by investigation, as modern scientists do, 
they contented themselves mainly with reasoning how things 
should be. People began to grow weary of them because, 
in addition to contradicting each other, they proposed ab- 
surd theories. Men began to doubt the possibility of real 
knowledge, and to conclude that everything was just as one 
thought it to be. This sceptical attitude toward truth is 
the essence of the New Learning — a combination of 
sophistry and rhetoric first brought about in the Age of 
Pericles. A sophist, or teacher of practical wisdom, aimed 
through a course of instruction to prepare his students for 
active life, especially for statesmanship. This he professed 
to accomplish by training in cleverness of thought. Rheto- 
ric, which supplemented sophistry by equipping the student 
for public speaking, originated among the witty Sicilians. 
Its growth was quickened by the rise of democracy, which 
required the citizens to express their opinions on public 
affairs. Sophist and rhetorician were generally united in 
the same person. Thus Protagoras, the first sophist, was a 
master of argument, ready to prove the affirmative or nega- 
tive of any proposition with equally cogent reasoning. As 
a sophist he taught that "Man is the measure of all 
things," that is, all things are to a man just what he believes 
them to be. 

Corax of Syracuse was the author of the first practical 
system of rhetoric, the object of which was to prepare men 
for speaking before the popular courts of his city. Corax 
— the name signifies crow — had a pupil, Teisias, who 
contracted to pay for the course of training after winning 
his first case at law. But the master, after waiting many 
years for his fee, sued the pupil. When the case came 



Sophistry 219 

before the popular court, Corax pleaded that if he won, he 
should receive the fee according to law, but that if he lost, 
Teisias would have to pay according to contract, so that 
however the case might be decided, the plaintiff was sure 
of receiving payment. This seemed convincing to the jury; 
but then Teisias arose and pleaded that if he won the case, 
the law would absolve him from payment, and if he failed, 
the contract exempted him. Hereupon the jury, persuaded 
that both litigants were rogues, pronounced their verdict, 
"Bad crow! bad egg!" This story illustrates the acute- 
ness of argument in those times. 

The teachings of the great sophists, among whom was Effects of 
Protagoras, contained much that was wholesome. They ^op^^s^'^y* 
began the study of grammar and philology and the criti- 
cism of literature. They were the founders of the science 
of ethics, a principle of which was that all men were by 
nature brothers, and that slavery was therefore wrong. But 
some of the lesser sophists were mere jugglers in words, 
who, missing the spirit of Protagoras, taught literally " to 
make the worse cause appear the better." Such doctrines 
were severely lashed by the comic poets. One man is 
represented in comedy as refusing to pay his debts on the 
ground that he was not the same person as he who contracted 
them. This is a practical application of the doctrine 
of Heracleitus. With their specious logic the sophists P. 95- 
assailed the foundations of belief in everything. They 
destroyed respect for religion by pointing out its incon- 
sistencies and the immoralities of the gods : — 

Ion (to Apollo). — O Phoebus, do not so, but as thou art supreme, Euripides, 
follow in virtue's track; for whosoever of mortal men transgresses, him ^'^"^ 43^ ff. 
the gods punish. How, then, can it be just that you should enact laws 
for men, and yourselves incur the charge of breaking them? Now, I 
will put the case : wert thou, wert Poseidon, and Zeus, lord of heaven, 



220 



The New Learning 



Clouds, 
142 1 ff. 
(Rogers.) 



Euripides, 
480-406 B.C. 



to make atonement to mankind for every sin, ye would empty your 
temples in paying the fines for your misdeeds. For when ye pursue 
pleasure in preference to the claims of prudence, ye act unjustly; no 
longer is it fair to call men wicked, if we are imitating the evil deeds 
of the gods, but rather those who give us such examples. 

They assailed equally political and social institutions and 
called into question the laws on which state and society 
•rested. Aristophanes represents a certain youth, who has 
taken a lesson in sophistry, as designing to repeal the law 
which allows parents to chastise their children, and to sub- 
stitute for it one of quite a different nature : — 

Was not the author of this (old) law 

Like you and me, a man, sir? 
And did he not persuade and draw 

The rest to adopt his plan, sir? 
Then have not I, too, I would learn, 

A right to be the author 
Of a new law, that in return 

The son should beat the father? 

As the sophists taught only for pay, their direct influence 
was limited to the richer class; but their doctrines, taken 
up by the drama, were sown broadcast, though superficially, 
among the people. The great dramatic representative of 
the New Learning was Euripides. His education was 
broad; he had been an athlete, a painter, and a student 
of perhaps all the philosophic systems of his time. Along 
with his versatile attainments, he possessed a remarkable 
dramatic genius, — he was at once imaginative and realis- 
tic. No ancient writer seems so modern as Euripides; 
none knew human nature so well or sympathized so deeply 
with it, — especially with women and slaves, with the un- 
fortunate and the lowly. He had indeed so many beggars 
among his characters that his critic, Aristophanes, the comic 
poet, declared his stage property consisted mainly of rags; 



Euripides 221 

and as he was accustomed to compose in the attic, the critic 
said that most of his characters broke their limbs coming 
down stairs, hence the great number of cripples in his plays. 
There is in Euripides a decline in art, but so enormous an 
advance in humanism that his contemporaries could not 
understand and appreciate him. Notice his opinion of 
slavery: "'Tis but a single thing that brands the slave Slaves. 
with shame — his name ; in all else no upright slave is a °^' ^^ 
whit worse than free-born men." 

Most of his great examples of virtue and of heroism are Women, 
women, — Alcestis, for example, who willingly died to 
save her selfish husband's life. "Let Hades know, that 
swarthy god, and that old man who sits to row and steer 
alike at his death-ferry, that he hath carried over the lake 
of Acheron in his two-oared skiff a woman peerless amidst 
her sex. Oft of thee the Muses' votaries shall sing on the Alcestis, 
seven-stringed mountain shell and in hymns that need no '^^^ * 
harp,^ glorifying thee, oft as the spring in his cycle cometh 
round at Sparta in that Carnean month when all night long P. 129. 
the moon sails high o'erhead, yea, and in radiant Athens, 
happy town. So glorious a theme has thy death bequeathed 
to tuneful bards. Would it were in my power and range 
to bring thee to the light from the chambers of Hades and 
the streams of Cocytus with the oar that sweeps yon nether 
flood! For thou, and thou alone, most dear of women, 
hadst the courage to redeem thy husband from Hades in 
exchange for thy own life. Light lie the earth above thee, 
Lady!" 

Euripides sits in judgment on the gods, calling them to Religion, 
account for their sins; he applies his standard of morality P- 219. 
to mythical times and declares that the troubles which 
caused the Trojan War should have been settled by arbitra- 

1 Epic poetry. 



222 



The New Learning 



Ion, 1614 f. 



Murray, 
P- 253- 



The drama 
represents 
periods of 
history. 



Aristoph- 
anes, about 
450-385 B.C. 



Aristophanes' 
Apology, 



tion. Yet though he assails conventional religion with its 
soothsaying and immoral myths, he is himself profoundly 
religious: "Heaven's justice may tarry awhile, yet comes 
it at the last in no wise weakened." He is also intensely 
patriotic; he hates Sparta, and the Sicilian disaster has 
increased the bitterness and gloom of his nature. In his 
plays thereafter "dying Athens is not mentioned, but her 
death-struggle and her sins are constantly haunting us; the 
joy of battle is mostly gone, the horror of war is left." 
^schylus had represented the struggle of Athens for the 
preservation of freedom and for the acquisition of empire; 
Sophocles had embodied the spirit of Athens at ease, enjoy- 
ing the fruit of her labor; but Euripides was the poet of 
her political collapse, of that period in which the great city 
in an agony of soul was casting off her ambition for worldly 
conquest to emerge more beautiful and more spiritual than 
she had been before. 

Of the comic writers of the age the most famous was 
Aristophanes. He was a rare poet: his wit never failed; 
his fancy was as lively and as creative as Shakspere's; his 
choruses are beautiful lyrics, fragrant of the country and 
woodland, free from the polish and from the trammels of 
life within the city. He has much, too, to tell us of the 
times in which he lived. No one has given us so true a 
picture of Athens and her people, and at the same time 
such caricatures of her individual public men. We might 
compare his character sketches with the cartoons of the 
modern newspaper. In his satirical attacks upon every- 
thing new in literature, religion, and politics, some think 
they recognize an earnest moral purpose. Browning, for 
instance, celebrates his 

Splendor of wit that springs a thunderball — 
Satire — to burn and purify the world, 



Socrates 



223 



469-399 B.C. 



True aim, fair purpose : just wit justly strikes 
Injustice, — right as rightly quells the wrong. 
Finds out in knaves', fools', cowards' armory 
The tricky tinselled place fire flashes through. 

But the good he did was not unmixed with evil. Guarded 
by a reputation for the strictest orthodoxy, he did not 
hesitate to burlesque the gods; and though he attacked 
Euripides, and all representatives of the New Learning, he 
aided in spreading the opinions which he opposed. 

A man whom Aristophanes took great pleasure in ridi- Socrates, 
culing, and whom he represented in the Clouds as the perfect 
example of a pale- 
facedjbare-footed, 
hair-splitting so- 
phist, was the very 
one who looked 
farthest into the 
evils of the times 
and found a rem- 
edy for them. 
This was Socrates, 
whose thoughts 
and character have 
left a deep im- 
pression on the 
world for all time. 
Though but a 
sculptor in his 
youth, — an arti- 
san from the Greek 
point of view, — 

he did not succeed well in his trade, as he had the habit of 
standing for hours, or even for a day and night together, 




Xenophon, 
Memoirs of 
Socrates ; 
Plato, Dia- 
logues. 



Socrates 

(Capitoline Museum, Rome.) 



from the 
sophists. 



224 The New Learning 

wholly lost in thought. Then, too, he believed himself in- 
spired, — a spirit accompanied him through life warning 
him against doing evil. Forsaking an occupation in 
which, under the circumstances, he could make but a poor 
living, he devoted himself to searching for truth. The 

He differs sophists had Said, "We are ignorant; " Socrates, admitting 
this, heralded a new era in human thought when he said, 
"I will seek knowledge," thus asserting, contrary to the 
sophists, the possibility of learning the truth. Though 
people called him sophist, he gave no course of study and 
charged no fee, but simply questioned any one whom he 
met till he had convinced his opponent in the argument 
that the latter knew nothing of the subject of conversation. 
In all this he thought he was fulfilling a heaven-appointed 
mission, — the quest of truth with the help of his fellow- 
men. Taking no thought of natural or of physical science, 
he busied himself with moral duties, inquiring, for instance, 
what was just and what unjust; what was bravery and what 
cowardice; what a state was and what the character of a 

Xen. Mejn. i, Statesman. His reasoning was inductive, — that is, he 

^' ^S- aimed to form general conceptions by bringing together a 

number of individual cases, and to establish clear and ac- 
curate definitions of these conceptions. True knowledge 
thus gained was, he asserted, the only guide to virtuous 
conduct. He even went so far as to say that knowledge and 
virtue were one and the same thing. Practically, this 
means little more than that a man should learn to think 
accurately and then follow the dictates of his reason. In 
this way Socrates laid for ethical science a solid founda- 
tion, on which, though incomplete, men could build far 
better character than on the sands of sophistry. 

Personality. In a city in which people regarded the beautiful body as 
a sign of the beautiful soul within, in which they looked 



Socrates 225 

upon an ugly man much as they would upon an anarchist, piato, Sympo- 
Socrates was the "ugliest of the sons of men." With his •^^^'"• 
enormously large bald head, protruding eyes, flat nose, and Giidersieeve, 
thick lips, he resembled the satyr masks displayed in the ^J.^^'J.^ ^" 
shop windows at Athens; big-bodied and bandy-legged, p. 221. 
he stalked like a pelican through the streets. But the 
pupil who looked beneath this satyr mask saw in the soul 
of the master images of fascinating beauty to remind 
him of the absolute perfection of God. Among the many 
scenes from the life of Socrates, one of the most pleasing 
is the picture of master and pupil sitting on the bank of 
the Ilissus, dipping their feet in the running stream, and 
engaged in philosophic talk : — 

Socrates. By Hera, a fair resting-place, full of summer sounds and Plato, Phcs- 
scents. Here is this lofty and spreading plane tree, and the chaste drus, 
agnus high and clustering, in the fullest blossom and the greatest fra- 
grance; and the stream which flows beneath the plane tree is deli- 
ciously cold to the feet. Judging from the ornaments and images, this 
must be a spot sacred to Acheloiis and the Nymphs. How delightful 
is the breeze, — so very sweet; and there is a sound in the air shrill 
and summerlike which makes answer to the chorus of the cicadae. But 
the greatest charm of all is the grass, like a pillow gently sloping to the 
head. 

And when they had ceased conversing, Socrates prayed : — 

Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me 
beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and the inward man 
be at one. May I reckon the wise to be the wealthy, and may I have 
such a quantity of gold as a temperate man, and he only, can bear and 
carry. — Anything more? This prayer, I think, is enough for me. 

Though the words are Plato's, the spirit is that of Socra- 
tes. In some respects the influence of Socrates was tem- 
porarily harmful : his training increased the cleverness of 
certain vicious young men, as Alcibiades and Critias, with- 
out reforming their characters; he led men to distrust the 
Q 



226 The Nezv Learning 

existing government at a time when patriotism and faith 
were most needed. And though in the end his teachings 
regenerated Athens, his fellow-citizens, mistaking him for 

399 B.C. a sophist, condemned him to death on the ground that he 

had corrupted the youth, and had acted impiously toward 
the gods of the state. 

Thucydides, Thucydides the historian, who combines the intellectual 
° B c^ strength of ^schylus with the analytical power of Socrates, 
accomplished for history what the sophists were achieving 
for science and religion : he brushed away the shimmer of 
the past. In his eyes the founding of states, the growth 
of constitutions, the early wars from the fabled siege of 
Troy to the victories of Platsea and Mycale, were insignifi- 
cant; the grandeur of the present overshadowed them all. 
He wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War, including 
the events which led up to it. Though neither infallible 
nor absolutely free from prejudice, he is one of the most 

P- i8s- trustworthy of historians. In contrast with Herodotus, he 

is exceedingly complex in style and thought. Narrow, 
sceptical, and cold, he rarely betrays his sympathy unless, 
as Mahaffy suggests, by the violent contortions of grammar 
while describing some uncommonly brutal massacre. He 
shows his kinship with the sophists in the practical object 
of his work; it was to be immediately and permanently 
serviceable to statesmen and generals, not for mere enter- 
tainment, as was the history of Herodotus. Thucydides 
therefore detailed campaigns with the minutest precision, 
while omitting nearly all reference to the internal improve- 
ments and the civilization of the states which he treated. 
Many modern historians follow in his footsteps in this re- 
spect, even though their work may be for the general reader, 
and not, like that of Thucydides, for the specialist in the 
theory and practice of war. 



Moral Effects 227 

Thucydides was far less interested than some of his con- Political 
temporaries in the details of government. Men imbued ^^^°^y- 
with the New Learning were busying themselves in his time 
with criticising existing constitutions and with creating 
ideal forms of government. Among these authors was an 
Athenian oligarch, who, early in the Peloponnesian War, 
published anonymously a severe critique on the govern- 
ment of his city.i The unknown writer believed that the 
so-called better class ought to rule because it contained the 
highest degree of justice, temperance, and conscientious- 
ness, while in the ranks of the people could be found the 
greatest amount of disorder and rascality — the result of 
poverty and lack of education. The only way to remedy 
the government, he declared, was to overthrow the democ- 
racy and establish the rule of the "gentlemen." 

The truth is the reverse of this. The people as a whole. The "better 
though superficially acquainted with the New Learning, ^^^^^ ^"^ 
remained little affected by it, while many of the educated 
class, "the enlightened," were thoroughly corrupted, — 
they had lost religion and patriotism, the foundations of 
morality, and had as yet discovered nothing to take their 
place. We shall soon see that the rascality and worthless- 
ness of the "better class" proved a greater misfortune for 
Athens than the wreck of the Sicilian expedition. 

At first the Athenians could not believe the news of the Effects of the 
disaster in Sicily, even when they heard it from the sur- ^J^^^^^^ 
vivors themselves. As they came to realize the truth, they 413 b.c. 
vented their rage upon the orators and the soothsayers who 
had persuaded them to engage in the enterprise. For a Thuc. viii, i. 
time they seemed overwhelmed with despair : while mourn- 
ing their losses they feared that they should now have to 

1 Namely, The Constitution of Athens, placed by mistake among the 
works of Xenophon, 



of Athens en- 
couraged. 



228 The End of the War 

contend against the whole Greek world, and they had no 
ships, no men, no money. But the spirit of Athens was 
elastic; her hopes revived and her citizens determined in 
some way to build a new fleet. At the same time they 
resolved to cut down expenses and to hold fast to their 
empire. The long political training of the Athenians had 
given them a moderation in adversity and a power to en- 
dure misfortune such as no oligarchic state in Hellas pos- 
sessed. Fortunately they had the winter for preparation 
before the enemy could attack. 
The enemies The Lacedsemonians and allies, elated by the news, began 
to hope once more for success. Neutrals hastened to join 
Sparta in order to share in the glory of triumphing over 
Athens. It is a significant fact that the Persian king now 
ordered his satraps, Tissaphernes of Sardis and Pharna- 
bazus of the country about the Hellespont, to collect from 
the Greek cities of Asia Minor the tributes which had been 
unpaid for seventy years. Each satrap requested of Sparta 
a fleet to operate in his own locality, promising to support 
it with Persian gold. As the Chians had revolted against 
Athens and were likewise asking help, the Lacedaemonians 
resolved to send a fleet to aid them and Tissaphernes at 
once. The example of Chios was soon followed by other 
communities in the same region. Alcibiades himself went 
P. 214 ff. thither from Sparta to encourage rebellion against his 
412 B.C. native city. The Lacedaemonians then concluded an 

offensive and defensive alliance with Persia. The treaty, 
though afterwards modified in important respects, still 
surrendered to Persia those cities of Asia Minor which 
Athens had protected against every enemy for nearly 
seventy years. 

The Athenians put forth every energy to prevent the 
revolt from spreading. To Samos, their most faithful ally. 



Oligarchic Conspiracy 229 

they granted independence and made this island the base Aicibiades 
of their naval operations. The contending parties re- ^^^'^^ ^^^ 

balance of 

mained nearly balanced in strength, even after the arrival ^^r. 
of a Syracusan fleet under Hermocrates to help the Lace- 
daemonians; but the resources of Athens were gradually 
exhausted, while those of the enemy seemed limitless. 
Such was the state of affairs when an unexpected event 
turned the war for a time in favor of Athens. Aicibiades, 
hated by King Agis and fearing for his life, went over to 
Tissaphernes and persuaded him to cut down the pay of 
the Lacedaemonians and to keep back the Phoenician fleet 
which was daily expected in the ^gean. He convinced 
the satrap that it would be expedient to let Lacedaemon 
and Athens wear each other out in war, — insisting that 
the success of the former would be followed by the recon- 
quest of Asiatic Greece from Persia. As Aicibiades sin- Holm, ii, 
cerely desired to return to Athens, in order to effect his P" ^^'^' 
recall he aimed to win the gratitude of his countrymen by 
making them think he could gain for them the friendship 
of Persia. He wished, too, to recover on his return the 
leadership of the democratic party. But a serious obstacle 
was in the way, — Androcles, the present head of the party, 
was the very man who had sent him into exile. To ac- 
complish his object, Aicibiades felt that he must first 
instigate others to overthrow the popular government along 
with the obnoxious chief, and then himself step in to 
restore it. In the light of a saviour of democracy he be- 
lieved that he could return all-powerful to his native city. 

The time was ripe for a constitutional experiment at Conspiracy 
Athens, as the Sicilian disaster seemed to prove the failure ° ^ ^ 

garchs. 

of democracy. Some of the officers of the army at Samos, 
who were themselves of the wealthier class, favored the 
establishment of an oligarchy, in which they thought they 



230 



The End of the War 



Thuc. viii, 
47 f. 



Thuc. viii, 
53-54- 



Oligarchic 
constitutions. 



P. 2E 



Arist. Atk. 
Const. 29. 



would have more of the privileges naturally belonging to 
men of their standing. Accordingly, when Alcibiades sent 
them word that he would return and make Tissaphernes an 
ally of Athens if they should set up an oligarchy, they 
readily consented. But when Peisander came to Athens as 
their spokesman, the Athenians met his proposals with a 
storm of indignation. They objected equally to changing 
the government and to recalling the impious traitor Alci- 
biades. But Peisander called up the objectors one by one 
and asked them what else could be done. " How are we 
to raise money to support the war against both Persia and 
our many Greek enemies?" he asked. Unable to meet 
this pointed argument, the people gave way in the hope 
that they might renew the democracy at the close of the 
war. Of course Peisander' s argument was worthless, for 
the Persian king had no more love for oligarchy than for 
democracy, and was not disposed to make peace with 
Athens on any acceptable terms. It soon appeared, in- 
deed, that Alcibiades had grossly deceived the Athenians 
in making them believe he could win the help of Persia>v^ 
The oligarchs proceeded, nevertheless, to carry out their 
designs. As a part of the programme, their clubs at 
Athens, organized and united under the lead of Antiphon, 
a brilliant rhetorician and a bold, sagacious schemer, as- 
sassinated Androcles and other prominent democrats, and 
in this way terrorized the whole state. The people, over- 
estimating the extent of the conspiracy, feared to talk on 
the subject with one another, lest in so doing they might 
betray themselves to an enemy. This mutual distrust 
among the citizens made the oligarchs safe. These con- 
spirators carried a resolution through the assembly to ap- 
point a committee for drawing up a constitution on the 
basis of the Solonian and the Cleisthenean arrangements, 



The Four Hundred 231 

with such modifications as might be thought good. The 
committee reported two constitutions, the first provisional, 
the second final, and both were adopted by the assembly. 
Under both constitutions public service was generally un- P. 155. 
paid, a reaction against Aristeides. According to the 
provisional arrangement the state was to be ruled by a 
Council of Four Hundred, like that of Solon. This body 
was empowered to appoint the magistrates and to manage 
the whole business of government, but had no authority to 
change the laws. It could bring the final constitution into 
force as soon as it saw fit. The final constitution restricted 
the franchise to five thousand citizens, the wealthiest in 
the state. Of this number, those above thirty years of age 
were to be divided equally into four councils, which were 
to rule the state by turns. These were the first written con- 
stitutions which Athens had; both of them were artificial, 
ill adapted to the character of the people. 

When organized, the Four Hundred entered the council- Rule of the 

house, accompanied by soldiers and assassins, and, dis- ^^^^ ^""" 

dred. 
missing the Council of Five Hundred, assumed the reins of 

government. The oligarchs ruled by force, assassinating, 
banishing, and imprisoning their opponents on mere sus- 
picion. They showed their lack of patriotism by their 
willingness to make peace with Lacedaemon at any price, 
and their weakness by yielding Euboea to the enemy. 

News of the violence and cruelty of the Four Hundred The army 
came to the Athenians at Samos. These soldiers assem- ^"^ Aicibi- 

ades are 

bled, declared that Athens had revolted, and that they democratic, 
themselves constituted the true government of the empire. 
They deposed their oligarchic officers and filled the vacant Thuc. viii, 
places with popular men; they prepared to carry on the 75.76. 
war with vigor, and hoped through Alcibiades to win Per- 
sia to their side. Thrasybulus, one of the new command- 



232 The End of the War 

Thuc.viii,82. ers, brought the famous exile to their camp. A democrat 
once more, Alcibiades was immediately elected general 
and placed in chief command of the army. Having now 
reached the goal of his hopes, he was ready to use all the 
resources of his mind to save Athens from the ruin he had 
brought upon her. To the envoys from the Four Hundred, 
he replied that this new council must abdicate immediately 
in favor of the Five Thousand and of the old Council of 
Five Hundred. At the same time he prudently restrained 
the troops from going to Athens to punish the oligarchic 
usurpers. 

Failure of the The Four Hundred, threatened by the army and unable 

our un- ^^ make terms with Lacedsemon short of absolute submis- 
dred. 

sion, began to feel insecure. One of their chief difficulties 
P. 217. was lack of agreement among themselves. They were 

neither nobles nor experienced politicians, but for the 
most part men of the lower class, who had been educated 
in the New Learning and wished to experiment in political 
theory by setting up a government of the "enlightened." 
They soon split into two factions: the extreme oligarchs, 
led by Antiphon and Peisander, and the moderates, under 
Theramenes. With the moderates in their favor, the 
Athenians overthrew the Four Hundred, after a three 
months' rule, and extended the franchise to all who could 
equip themselves with full armor. This form of govern- 
ment soon gave way to the democracy. The attempt to 
restrict the franchise had proved unwise ; far better would 
P. 178. it have been to extend the citizenship to the best alien 

residents and to the most loyal allies. There was indeed 
some thought of this, but it was not carried out to any 
appreciable extent. 
Persistence The Four Hundred had brought only misfortune to 

ens. Athens. Under their slack rule the war had extended to 



Cyrus and Lysander 233 

the Hellespont, and most of the cities in that region had 
revolted. The struggle continued seven years after their 
downfall. That Athens in her exhausted condition, with- 
out tributes or allies, could withstand for so long a time 
the combined strength of the rest of Greece, supported by 
Persian money, is one of the astonishing things in history, " 
and proves clearly that the mass of Athenians had not been 
weakened by culture. For a time they were cheered by 
news of victories, especially of that at Cyzicus, gained by 
Alcibiades in 410 B.C. "Ships gone, our admiral dead, 
the men starving, at our wits' end what to do," was the 
laconic message which reached Sparta from Cyzicus. 
Lacedaemon then offered peace on the basis of the status 
quo, but Cleophon, the democratic leader at this time, 
persuaded the Athenians to reject the terms. It appeared 
doubtful whether a lasting peace could be secured without 
the complete triumph of one of the contending parties. 
The Athenians feared, too, that peace with Sparta would 
bring them another tyrannical oligarchy in place of their 
free constitution; and they had not yet lost hope of success 
in the war. 

The two powers were still balanced when, in 408 b.c, Cyrus and 
Darius, king of Persia, who had resolved to throw the whole Lysander. 
weight of his wealth in favor of Lacedaemon, despatched 
Cyrus, the younger of his two sons, to take the satrapy of 
Sardis from Tissaphernes and to give all possible aid to the 
enemies of Athens. In the same year Lysander, a born 
leader of men, a general and diplomatist of surpassing 
ability, came from Sparta to the seat of war. He visited 
Cyrus and easily won his way to the heart of the ambitious 
young prince. In the summer Alcibiades sailed from 
Peiraeus for Ionia with one hundred well-equipped triremes. 
During his absence his lieutenant, Antiochus, risked a 



234 



The End of the War 



Athenians 
defeated, 
407 B.C. 



Xenophon, 
Hellenic a, 
i. 5- 



The battle 
Arginusae, 
406 B.C. 



Xen. Hell. 
i, 6. 



Afh. Const. 
3f- 



battle and was defeated with the loss of fifteen ships. This 
was the first reverse which the Athenians had suffered since 
the time of the Four Hundred. As they held Alcibiades 
responsible for the misfortune, they failed to reelect him 
general for the following year. Fearing to return home, 
he retired to a castle on the Hellespont which he had pre- 
pared for such an occasion. Thus the Athenians cast away 
a man who might have saved them. Though working to 
the end for his own glory, he was wiser now than in his 
youth and would have served his country well; but the 
confidence of his fellow-citizens in one who had been so 
impious and so traitorous could not but be shaken by the 
slightest reverse, 
of The contending powers now put forth enormous efforts. 
In 406 B.C. the Athenians with a hundred and fifty tri- 
remes met a Peloponnesian fleet of a hundred and twenty 
triremes, under the Spartan admiral Callicratidas, near the 
islands of Arginusse, and gained a complete victory. 
Athens lost twenty-five ships; the. enemy seventy, with 
their commander and crews amounting to about fourteen 
thousand men. This was the severest battle of the war. 
The death of Callicratidas was a loss not to Sparta alone, 
but to all Hellas; for, besides being an able general, he 
was a man of exceptionally humane and noble character. 
He had regretted the war in which Greeks were engaged 
in killing their brethren, and had promised on his return to 
Sparta to do all in his power to make a general Hellenic 
peace. And indeed the Lacedaemonians, after hearing of 
their disaster, were willing for the sake of peace to leave 
Athens what she still possessed; but Cleophon again per- 
suaded the Athenians to reject the conditions. On this 
occasion, says Aristotle, Cleophon came into the assembly 
drunk, with breastplate on, and declared he would accept 



The Last Battle 235 

no peace which involved the surrender of a single city of 

the empire. Possibly, however, his enthusiasm for war 

came not from wine, but from the recent victory; it may 

be, too, that the Peloponnesian congress would not have 

consented to the terms. It was a war in which Athens was 

contending not only for political principles, but even for 

freedom; and those Athenians were heroes who would rather 

die than sacrifice their principles or endanger the liberty of 

their children. 

But the Athenians disgraced themselves for all time by Condemna- 

puttiner to death six of the srenerals who had won the vie- *^°" ° / ^ 
^ ^ ^ generals. 

tory at Arginusse on the ground that they had neglected to 
rescue the crews of the triremes wrecked in the battle. 
The commanders had ordered two ship-captains, Theram- Xen. Hell. 
enes and Thrasybulus, to attend to the work, but a sudden '' '7- 
storm had prevented the rescue of the unfortunate sailors. 
Theramenes, however, to clear himself of all possibility of 
blame, hounded on the citizens against his superiors. The 
iVthenians violated the constitution in condemning the 
generals collectively, and in refusing them a sufficient 
opportunity for defence. Soon repenting of their conduct, 
they prosecuted those who had persuaded them to the 
judicial murder. 

As it appeared that the war must continue, Cyrus and Battle of 
the Chians requested Lacedaemon to send them Lysander ^gospotami, 

405 B.C. 

again, for they had implicit confidence in him. He came ^ „ „ 
not as admiral, for no one could hold this office a second ii, i. 
time, but as the admiral's secretary, yet with the under- 
standing that he should be the real commander. The op- 
posing fleets met in the Hellespont, — a hundred and 
eighty Athenian war-ships against two hundred from Pelo- 
ponnese, the Athenians on the European side at the mouth 
of the ^gospotami, the Peloponnesians on the opposite 



236 



The End of the War 



shore at Lampsacus. Lysander would not engage. For 
five days the Athenians sailed forth to offer battle, and for 
the fifth time retired with their challenge unaccepted. 
Leaving their ships along the shore, they dispersed as usual 
to gather food through the neighborhood. Lysander came 
with his whole fleet and found most of the enemy's triremes 
empty. The crews, returning hurriedly, fell into the hands 
of Lysander, who massacred three thousand Athenians to 



Effects of the 
defeat on 
Athens. 




THE 

HEI.I.ESPONT 

AND SURROUNDING TERRITORY 



Bj.ma, iCo.,N.r, 



punish them for having killed prisoners of war. In reality, 
Athens and Lacedsemon were equally to blame in this 
respect. It seems probable that the Athenians were be- 
trayed to Lysander by one or more of their generals. 
Conon alone of the commanders escaped with a few ships; 
and, sending the official galley Paralus to Athens with the 
news, he, though innocent, fled for his life with the rest of 
his ships to Cyprus. 

"It was night when the Paralus reached Athens with 
her evil tidings, on receipt of which a bitter wail of woe 
broke forth. From Peiroeus, following the line of the 



The Terms of Peace 



237 



Long Walls up to the heart of the city, it swept and Xen. Hell. 
swelled, as each man passed the news to his neighbor. On "' ^' 
that night no man slept. There was mourning and sorrow 
for those who were lost, but the lamentation for the dead 
was merged in even deeper sor- 
row for themselves, as they pic- 
tured the evils they were about 
to suffer, the like of which they 
had inflicted upon the men of 
Melos," and upon many others. 
Ships and men were lost, and 
they were soon besieged by land 
and sea. But no man dared to 
speak of submission. Finally, 
when on the point of starvation, 
they sent Theramenes and others 
to Sparta with full powers to 
treat for peace. Thereupon a 
Peloponnesian congress was held 
in Sparta, in which the Corin- 
thians, the Thebans, and some 
others proposed to destroy Athens utterly, and to enslave 
the Athenians. But the Spartan ephors objected; they 
were unwilling, they said, that a city which had done 
such noble service for Greece in the perilous times 
of the Persian invasion should be enslaved. They would Xen. Hell. 
be content with milder conditions : that Athens should "• ^* 
demolish the fortifications of Peiraeus and the Long Walls, 
give up all her war-ships but twelve, follow Sparta in 
peace and in war, and permit the return of the politi- 
cal exiles. With these concessions, Athens might remain 
free and "under the constitution of the fathers." As the 
Athenian envoys entered their city, a great crowd gath- 




A Sepulchral Vase of 
Marble 

(National Museum, Athens.) 



The terms of 
peace, 
404 B.C. 



238 The End of the War 

ered about them trembling "lest their mission should have 
proved fruitless; " for many were already dying of starva- 
tion. A few still opposed the terms; but as Cleophon had 
been put out of the way by a judicial murder, the majority, 
. now free from his control, ratified the treaty. Lysander 
entered Peirseus with his fleet, the exiles were already re- 
turning, and the Peloponnesians began the demolition of 
the walls to the music of flutes, with the idea that they 
were celebrating the return of liberty to Hellas. 

Sources 

Reading. Thucydides, viii; Xenophon, Hellenica, i-ii; Aristophanes, Come- 

dies — Clouds (423 B.C.), Birds (414 B.c^ , Lysistrata and Thesmophori- 
azusae (411 B.C.), Frogs (405 B.C.); Euripides, Tragedies — Alcestis 
(438 B.C.), Medea (431 B.C.), Ion (425 B.C.), Suppliants (420 B.C. ?), 
Troades {Ofi^ B.C.?), Orestes {apZ'&.Q^; Diodorus, xiii. 

Modern Authorities 

(i) The New Learning: Holm, History of Greece, II, ch. xxvi; 
Allcroft, Peloponnesian War, ch. xii; Mayor, Ancient Greek Philoso- 
phy^ p. 17 ff.; Marshall, History of Greek Philosophy, chs. vii-xii; 
Murray, History of Ancient Greek Literature.^ chs. vii, viii, xii, xiii. 

(2) Military and Constitutional History: Holm, II, ch. xxviii; 
Oman, History of Greece, chs. xxxiii, xxxiv; Cox, Athenian Empire, 
chs. vi, vii; Allcroft, chs. ix-xi; Timayenis, History of Greece^ I, pt. v, 
chs. v-viii; Curtius, History of Greece^ III, bk. iv, ch. v; Grote, His- 
tory of Greece^ VII, ch, Ixi-VIII, ch. Ixv. 




Temple of Poseidon at P^estum (Posidonia) 



CHAPTER XII 



THE END OF FREEDOM IN SICILY AND IN ITALY 

(413-264 B.C.) 

In the year before the surrender of Athens to Sparta, Carthaginian 
Syracuse again fell under the tyranny. The events which ^"^^s'°" °^ 
led up to this revolution were as follows. For nearly 
seventy years the terror of the Athenian name had held the 479-413 i^-c. 
Carthaginians as well as the Persians at bay; but, on the 
overthrow of the Athenian naval supremacy, both Carthage 
and Persia again hoped to conquer parts of Greece. In 
409 B.C., on the invitation of Segesta, which was still 
threatened by Selinus, Carthage sent over to Sicily a vast P. 208 f. 
fleet conveying an army of a hundred thousand men under 
King Hannibal, grandson of that Hamilcar who had met P. 138. 

239 



240 The End of Freedom in Sicily and Italy 

his death at Himera. This great armament laid siege to 
Selinusj on the ninth day it stormed the city and butchered 
the inhabitants. In the quarries a few miles from Selinus 
may still be seen the gigantic columns for a temple to Zeus 
or Apollo which the people were just then building; they 
remain as monuments of the fearful catastrophe which fell 
upon this city. After plundering and burning Selinus, 
Hannibal marched on to Himera, where the siege and the 
massacre were reenacted. Though a few Himeraeans es- 
caped, three thousand captives were led to the spot where 
Hamilcar had sacrificed himself, and there killed with horrid 
torture and mutilation. In this manner Hannibal sought 
to appease the hungry appetite of his grandfather's ghost. 
Siege of A fresh army of mercenaries next invested Acragas, now 

cragas, ^^ Wealthiest and most luxurious city in the Greek world. 

406 B.C. ^ 

One of the citizens could put eight hundred chariots into 
his daughter's bridal procession, another had two hundred 
and seventy thousand gallons of wine in his cellar; exces- 
Hoim, ii, sive wealth had weakened the inhabitants. The Phoeni- 
^" ^^^* cians pressed the siege, using for their walls and mounds 

even the gravestones from the cemetery outside the city. 
It was rumored that a thunderbolt saved the tomb of 
P. 138. Theron, victor of Himera, and that the Phoenician watch- 

men saw the ghosts of the disentombed dead flitting about 
them. A pestilence broke out which killed many of the 
besiegers, including Hannibal. Himilcon, the second in 
command, propitiated the angry gods with a multitude of 
sacrifices, among them a boy, — perhaps his own son. 
Finally, the people of Acragas, though reenforced by their 
neighbors, abandoned their city and settled in Leontini. 
Himilcon took up his winter quarters in deserted Acragas, 
and sent much of its wealth, including works of art, to 
Carthage. 



Dionysiiis I 241 

The Sicilians felt that Acragas had been lost through the Dionysius 
treachery of Syracusan generals sent to defend it. A t>ecomes 
young Syracusan officer named Dionysius accused them in ^05 b.c. 
a public assembly. Though poor and of middle rank, he 
was supported by a few leading men of the city, with whose 
help he persuaded the people to depose the generals and 
to elect himself and others in their place. Then by bring- 
ing charges of treason against his colleagues, he soon had 
them deposed and himself made sole commander with abso- 
lute power. Immediately securing a body-guard of a thou- 
sand mercenaries, he made himself tyrant of his native city. 
The Syracusans, who had supposed him the soul of patriot- 
ism, were now bitterly disappointed ; but those SiciHans 
who were most exposed to the attacks of the enemy still 
looked to him for dehverance. They, too, were soon unde- 
ceived, for Dionysius compelled the people of Gela and of 
Camarina to abandon their cities to the invader and to 
retire to Syracuse. Great was the indignation of all classes 
against the usurper, who seemed to have proved his incom- 
petency by sacrificing two Hellenic cities to the foreigners. 
But through his mercenaries the tyrant maintained himself 
against every attempt to assassinate or to depose him. In 
404 B.C. he concluded a treaty with the Carthaginians by Grote, x, 
which he yielded to them the whole island except the Sicels P* "^55 ^ 
of the interior and the Greek cities of the eastern coast. 
The Carthaginians, for their part, acknowledged him as the 
absolute ruler of Syracuse. 

This treaty filled the Sicihan Greeks with sadness and Preparations 
alarm. The tyrant and the foreigner had divided the ^Q"^^^'^"^- 
island between them, the foreigner receiving the lion's 
share. The enemy was gone, but no one knew how soon 
he would return, and the man on whom they had depended 
for protection had betrayed and enslaved them. But Dio- 



242 The End of Freedom in Sicily and Italy 

nysius was a better and abler man than the SiciHans supposed, 
— he had no intention of yielding Sicily definitively to the 
foreigner. Seven years he busied himself with increasing 
his power and with preparing for war on a grand scale. He 
employed sixty thousand men in building a great wall about 
Syracuse ; he organized an army of eighty thousand infantry ; 
his engineers invented a new instrument, afterwards known 
as the ballista, for throwing large stones against the enemy's 
walls. Dionysius was the first of the Greeks to combine 
effectively a variety of troops, as heavy-armed, light-armed, 
cavalry, and artillery. He built a fleet of more than three 
hundred vessels, some of them quinqueremes, — huge gal- 
leys with five banks of oars, invented by his shipwrights. 
The armaments of eastern Greece were puny compared with 
his. Though utterly unscrupulous, though he ground down 
the rich with taxes and with confiscations, and violated nearly 
every sentiment dear to the Greek heart, yet he gained a 
certain degree of popularity by the military preparations 
which made him appear as the strong champion of Hellas 
against the barbarian. 
War with He began war upon Carthage in 397 B.C., and with his 

Carthage, ^^^j. aj-i^Qament nearly swept the Phoenicians from the island : 

397-392 B.C. 

but in the following year Himilcon, landing in Sicily, re- 
gained everything which Carthage had lost and Messene in 
addition. Most of the Messenians escaped, but Himilcon 
ordered his men to burn the woodwork and to grind the 
stones to powder. This was done ; and a stranger in pass- 
ing the spot would never have suspected that a great and 
free Hellenic city had once flourished there. The invaders 
then defeated the fleet of Dionysius and besieged the 
tyrant in Syracuse by land and sea. The newly built 
ramparts saved the city. A pestilence demoralized the 
besiegers ; the Greeks, taking courage, set fire to the 



Conquests of Dioitysiiis I 



'2-AZ 



Phoenician fleet in the Great Harbor and from their walls 
watched the conflagration of two thousand hostile ships. 
The siege was raised and the enemy pushed back till he 
held but the extreme western end of the island. All the 
rest Dionysius secured by the treaty of 392 B.C. Hence- 
forth the tyrant was known officially as " Archon of Sicily." 

Even while waging war with Carthage, Dionysius had Conquests in 
begun to threaten the Greeks of Italy, and after conclud- 



Italy. 




KINGDOM OF 

DIOXYSIUS 

367 B.C. 



formair Sc Co. , N. K 



ing peace he renewed his eflbrts to annex Magna Graecia p. 35- 
to his own dominion. As the Italian Greeks were assailed 
at the same time by the Lucanians, a strong Samnite tribe 
from the interior, they could do nothing but yield to Dio- 
nysius. In the year 387 B.C. we find his kingdom in Italy 
extending as far as Croton. Some of the Greeks he had 
removed to Syracuse, others he had sold into slavery. His 
method of unifying western Greece failed to commend 



244 ^-^^ £";/</ of Freedom irt Sicily and Italy 

itself to Hellenic feeling; though everywhere he showed 
the utmost disregard for sacred places and institutions, the 
Greeks were powerless to resist. 

Other wars. Dionysius carried on two more wars with Carthage ; and 

though he failed to dislodge the foreigner from Sicily, he still 
held the larger part of the island as well as his Italian pos- 
sessions. He aided the Lacedaemonians in maintaining their 
supremacy over eastern Greece, and his power was generally 
recognized as the greatest in the Hellenic world. 

Dionysius as Dionysius was a poet as well as a commander ; and though 

^ P°^^' engaged in wars to the end, in his later years a desire for 

peace grew upon him. A tragedy of his won a prize at 
Athens ; but he was so generally detested throughout 
Greece that he found few to appreciate his literary talents. 
A story is told that Philoxenus, a poet at his court, was 
imprisoned in a stone-quarry as a punishment for criticising 
the tyrant's poetry; when liberated soon afterwards and 
invited to hear another recital, he endured the reading for a 
few moments, and then cried out, "Take me back to the 

388 B.C. (?) stone-quarry ! " A splendid display of horses and chariots, 
of athletes and actors, which he made at the Olympic games, 
in like manner won no applause. The orator Lysias from 
Athens tried to incite the Greeks there assembled to begin 

P. 289. war upon the tyrant by plundering his rich tents ; and 

though the holiness of the festival prevented this outrage, 
the reciters of his poems were hissed, his chariots over- 
turned in the race, and on the way home his delegation was 
shipwrecked, says Diodorus, the historian, because of the 
great stock of bad poetry on board. So far from winning 
the favor and admiration of the Greeks by his exhibit, the 
tyrant discovered that he was universally hated. 

Dionysius It was about this time that Plato, the Athenian philoso- 

d" V' pber, visited his court. Plato, who believed that within a 
V . 290 n. * ' ' 



Diony silts II 245 

given time an absolute ruler could be of far more benefit 
to his country than an ordinary government, tried to induce 
Dionysius to rule according to the lofty Platonic ideas of 
justice. The tyrant answered the philosopher's arguments 
by having him exposed for sale in a slave-market. Plato 
was ransomed, however, and returned to Athens. 

In 367 B.C. Dionysius died, after reigning thirty-eight Character of 
years. He could hardly have ruled so long had he not pos- dionysius. 
sessed qualities which tended to make his power secure ; 
his private character was without reproach, he was free 
from the immoralities which had destroyed many a tyrant ; 
and, on the other hand, he never hesitated at bloodshed, 
confiscation of property, or anything else which would make 
him safe. Though brave in battle, he was exceedingly sus- 
picious and employed a great number of spies to watch the 
movements of those whom he suspected at home and 
abroad. He performed a service for Greece and for Europe 
by imposing a check upon the Carthaginians till Rome could 
grow strong enough to protect European civilization. 

Dionysius II, who now came to the throne, was a weak Dionysiu§ II, 
but good-natured tyrant, ready to undo the wrongs com- 367-356 and 
mitted by his grim father. The real power was for a time 
in the hands of a kinsman, Dion, a superficial convert to the 
Platonic philosophy. Though Plato again visited Syracuse 
with a view to making a tyranny into an ideal government, 
he failed as before. The courtier and the philosopher were 
quietly dismissed from the state on suspicion of plotting 
against the ruler. Some time afterward Dion returned \vith 
mercenaries, overthrew Dionysius II, and made himself 
tyrant, in 356 B.C. 

After playing the despot for a brief season, Dion was Timoleon, 
murdered at the instigation of another philosopher, Calip- 
pus, who in turn aspired to the tyranny. Finally, when in 345-337 b.c. 



246 The End of Freedom in Sicily and Italy 

Plutarch, 346 B.C. Dionysius II regained the throne, he found his 
Timoleon. kingdom rapidly drifting into anarchy : the cities, throwing 
off the yoke of Syracuse, were falHng one by one under 
tyrants ; the Carthaginians were again invading Sicily \ the 
P. 164. Lucanians and Bruttians from Samnium were assailing the 

Greeks of Italy within and without his dominion. No hope 
could be placed in the effeminate despot, who was unfit for 
rule even in time of peace. Taking refuge at Leontini, cer- 
tain patriots of Syracuse sent an urgent appeal for help to 
their mother city, Corinth. The Corinthians could offer 
but few ships and mercenaries ; as commander, however, 
they sent Timoleon, a man of extraordinary ability and 
strength of character. Before setting out he visited the 
oracle of Apollo, and while he was in the shrine a ribbon em- 
broidered with crowns and with figures of victory is said to 
have slipped down from among the offerings upon his head, 
seeming to indicate that the prophet god was crowning him 
with success ; and on the voyage the sailors thought they 
saw Demeter's torch in the heavens guiding them through 
the night to Rhegium. Running the Phoenician blockade 
by a skilful trick, he landed in Sicily. There he found him- 
self surrounded on all sides by enemies, unsupported even 
by the people he had come to save. Hicetas, leader of the 
patriots, turning traitor to the cause of freedom, was schem- 
ing to make himself despot of Syracuse. After defeating 
Dionysius and gaining possession of most of the city, he 
was now besieging the tyrant in his island castle. The 
traitor had an understanding with the Carthaginians by 
which they were to block the harbors of the city with their 
fleet. Timoleon, however, by defeating Hicetas in the vicin- 
ity of Mount ^tna, so raised his own reputation that Catana 
and other Sicilian communities began to give him their 
support. Then Dionysius, unable to cope with both Hice- 



Tirnoleoji, the Liberator 247 

tas and the Carthaginians^ surrendered his castle and mili- 
tary stores to Timoleon on condition that he might retire 
into private life at Corinth. 

Timoleon's hopes began to brighten. Gradually he freed Battle of the 
the Greek cities from tyrants and gave them good laws and Cumisus, 
settled governments. On the Crimisus River, in the neigh- 3^0 e.g. 
borhood of Segesta, he met the vast mercenary force of 
Carthage which had come to Sicily for the purpose of over- 
whelming him. As his small army marched up the hill from 
the top of which the soldiers expected to get their first view 
of the enemy, their rehgious fears were aroused at sight of 
a train of mules laden with parsley, — a plant used for 
decorating tombs. But with the exclamation that the pars- 
ley chaplet was the reward of victory in the Isthmian games, P. loi. 
Timoleon seized some of the plant and made a wreath for 
his head ; the officers, then the soldiers, followed his ex- 
ample j and the army swept over the hill like a host of vic- 
torious athletes. Throwing his enthusiastic troops upon the 
Carthaginian centre, which had just crossed the Crimisus, 
he crushed it with one mighty blow. A sudden storm beat 
full in the faces of the enemy ; thousands were drowned in 
attempting to recross the swollen stream and thousands 
were killed or made captive. On that day Timoleon 
showed himself the peer of Epaminondas and of Alexander 
the Great. 

When he had liberated all Greek Sicily from Carthage and Reorganiza- 
from tyranny, he joined the cities in a federation, with Syra- ^°" 
cuse as leader in war. All members of the union were 
guaranteed their freedom. He next turned his attention 
to the economic condition of the country. As the long 
anarchy had left large tracts of land uncultivated and with- 
out owners, he invited Greeks from other countries to come 
and settle on the vacant farms. Thousands answered the 



248 TJie End of Freedom in Sicily and Italy 



T.ast days of 
liraoleon. 



The end of 
Sicilian free- 
dom. 



Pyrrhus, 
280-274 B.C. 



264-241 B.C. 



End of free- 
dom in 
Magna 
Graecia. 

343 B.C. 



call ; it required but a few peaceful years to bring prosperity 
to fruitful Sicily, and Timoleon lived to see the desolate 
island bloom again like a garden. 

After ruling eight years, he resigned his dictatorship and 
passed the remainder of his days as a private citizen of 
Syracuse, honored by all as their liberator. When he died 
the citizens established an annual festival in memory of the 
man " who had suppressed the tyrants, had overthrown the 
foreigner, had replenished the desolate cities, and had re- 
stored to the SiciHans the privilege of living under their 
own laws." 

The golden age of Timoleon was not to continue long. 
In 317 B.C. Agathocles became tyrant of Syracuse and of 
most of Sicily. As he was hardly so able a ruler as Diony- 
sius I., though more cruel and unscrupulous, he failed to 
protect his country from the Carthaginians and from civil 
strife. A few years after his death, which occurred in 289 
B.C., Pyrrhus, king of Epeirus, a man of noble character and 
of great mihtary genius, came to western Greece with a well 
organized army to save his countrymen from the Romans 
and the Carthaginians. Though he gained brilliant victories 
over Rome, and confined the Phoenicians of Sicily to one 
walled town, Lilybaeum, the ungrateful Greeks refused him 
their support ; so he was compelled, after wasting his army, 
to return defeated to Epeirus. Rome immediately annexed 
southern Italy to her own domain, then drove the Phoenicians 
from Sicily, and finally made this island a province in her 
empire. 

The history of Magna Graecia after Dionysius I is similar 
to that of Sicily. Tarentum, hard pressed by the Lucanians, 
begged Sparta, the parent city, to lend aid. King Archida- 
mus came accordingly with an army ; but, after maintaining 
himself for some years against the barbarians of the interior, 



The Roman Conquest 249 

he was defeated and slain in 338 B.C. Then came Alexan- 
der of Epeirus, brother-in-law of Alexander the Great. Cf. p. 307. 
The Epeirot king defeated both Lucanians and Bruttians, 
and for a time it seemed probable that Hellas would absorb 
all Italy. But the Greeks, loving liberty more than protec- 
tion, rebelled against the victorious monarch, who now had 
to fight against the people he had come to save. Under 
these circumstances he, too, was defeated and killed by the 
barbarians. Tarentum next summoned Pyrrhus, whose story 
has already been outlined. The western Greeks fell under 
the power of Rome because their desire for local indepen- 
dence would not permit them to unite or to endure the dic- 
tatorship of their able men. 

Sources 

Diodorus, xiiifF.; Plutarch, Timoleon, Pyrrhus. Reading 

Modem Authorities 

Holm, History of Greece, II, ch. xxix; III, chs. xi, xxviii; IV, chs. 
vii, viii, xi, xii; Oman, History of Greece, ch. xxxvii; Freeman, His- 
tory of Sicily, III, ch. ixff.; Story of Sicily, chs. ix-xvi; Allcroft and 
Masom, History of Sicily, chs. vii-xii; Grote, History of Greece, X, 
chs. Ixxxi, Ixxxiij XI, chs. Ixxxiii-lxxxv; XII, ch. xcvii. 




Spartan Mosaic 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE SUPREMACY OF SPARTA (404-371 B.C.) 



The Policy 
of Lysander. 

P. 238. 



The downfall of Athens, at the end of the Peloponnesian 
War, left Sparta supreme in the East as Syracuse was in the 
West. Never yet had the Hellenes reached so high a de- 
gree of political unity ; and at the summit of power in 
eastern Greece stood Lysander, who had done more than 
any other man to achieve the result. The destiny of Greece 
was in his hands ; it was his task to fashion the state of 
Hellas into an organic body which should perpetuate itself 
through its institutions after his hand should be withdrawn 
from the government. Though a man of rare talents, 
Lysander possessed no creative genius adequate to such an 
undertaking. He could think of nothing beyond the long- 
established Spartan and Athenian methods of dealing with 
allies and subjects. In his years of command he had be- 

250 



The Decarchies 251 

come acquainted with the leading men of oligarchic senti- 
ment in all the communities of the ^gean region. After The dec- 
the war, he made these friends rulers of their several com- ^'^^'^^^2- 
munities, establishing in each a decarchy, or board of ten 
oligarchs. In addition to this he stationed Lacedaemonian 
garrisons in most of the cities. These garrisons, main- 
tained by the communities in which they were placed, en- 
joyed unhmited privileges of plundering the inhabitants. 
The commander, termed " harmost," was military governor 
of the community and protector of the oligarchy. He was 
usually a man of low birth, servile to Lysander and brutal 
towards the defenceless people over whom he ruled. The 
oligarchs, too, were men who had deep-seated grudges 
against the communities in which they had so long been 
without the influence they felt to be their due. Now, 
accordingly, they wreaked vengeance on their political oppo- 
nents by expelling and assassinating them. They confis- 
cated property through sheer greed, and insulted the women 
and the children. " What form of oppression escaped them ? isoc iv, hi. 
or what deed of shame or cruelty did they not perpetrate ? 
They found their friends among the most lawless ; they 
counted traitors as benefactors, and chose to be slaves to 
one of the helots, that they might be supported while they 
outraged their own country." In this way Isocrates, a con- p. 289. 
temporary writer, describes the decarchies. Under Athens 
a man could feel that life, property, and family were safe ; 
now all this was reversed and the Greeks found themselves 
degraded to the rank of perioeci. 

The government of the "Thirty" at Athens is a good The Thirty, 
example of the way in which the maritime cities were 404-403 ^'^' 
ruled at this time. One of the clauses of the recent treaty 
permitted the return of the political exiles to Athens ; but P. 237. 
their coming was to bring no good to the city. Among Critias. 



252 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



Theramenes. 
P. 232. 



Xen. Hell. 

ii, 3; 
Arist. Ath. 

Const. 34 f. 



Tyranny. 



them was Critias, a kinsman of Solon, and hence a noble of 
high rank. He was a product of the New Learning, a 
musician and poet, a rhetorician, philosopher, and politi- 
cal theorist. In a political pamphlet, he showed his pref- 
erence for Sparta by disparaging the Athenian way of 
drinking as compared with that of Lacedsemon. Appar- 
ently he had no depth or strong emotions, but was cold and 
calculating, ambitious and unscrupulous ; within his short 
career he developed a strange appetite for blood and plun- 
der. Though destined to become the guiding spirit of the 
Thirty, he was for the present overshadowed by another 
political theorist, the shifty Theramenes, a friend of the 
middle class. The Thirty were a committee appointed at 
the dictation of Lysander and the oligarchic clubs to draw 
up a code of laws on the basis of the " constitution of the 
fathers " ; while engaged in this work they were to exercise 
absolute authority over the state. The members of the 
committee were all oHgarchs, among them Critias and 
Theramenes. Taking possession of the government, they 
filled the magistracies and the Council of Five Hundred with 
men after their own hearts. Instead of codifying the laws, 
however, they planned to hold their authority permanently. 
The first act of their administration, the destruction of 
certain pettifoggers who made a living by malicious accu- 
sations, met with universal applause ; it convinced the 
citizens that the world was now to see the first example of 
a perfect state, governed by the highest virtue and wisdom. 
But soon the Thirty began to kill their political opponents, 
men of known integrity. For their own safety, they called 
in a Lacedaemonian force of seven hundred men under 
Callibius as harmost, and lodged them in the Acropolis at 
the expense of the state. Supported by these foreign troops, 
the Thirty proceeded with their bloody work. As they 



The Thirty 253 

killed men for their property, they preferred wealthy victims, 
including even aristocrats, but found especial satisfaction in 
persecuting the alien residents. Lysias, the orator, who Lysias, 
belonged to this class, was robbed of his property and I^^^^^u 
driven into exile, and his brother was murdered. 

The wily Theramenes, perceiving that such excesses Reign of 
would bring the Thirty to ruin and wishing to place himself 
on the winning side, began to oppose their bloody policy. 
He demanded, too, that the franchise should be given to all 
the wealthier Athenians ; this measure, he said, would be 
just in itself and would make the government more secure. 
The Thirty acknowledged the soundness of his advice by 
drawing up a list of three thousand privileged citizens ; all 
the rest they expelled from the city. The reign of terror 
was now well under way, — "wholesale butchery became 
the watchword." Hundreds of citizens fled into exile; but 'K^n. Hell. 
the Spartan ephors, to uphold the Thirty, warned them "' ^' 
away from all parts of Greece. Some of the states, as 
Argos, Boeotia, and Chalcis, harbored them in defiance of 
the ephors. Thebes, long the enemy of Athens, became 
their rallying-place. Their number increased daily owing 
to the proceedings at i^thens. Meantime the Thirty had 
split into two factions : the extremists under Critias, the 
moderates led by Theramenes. Critias saved himself by 
arbitrarily condemning his opponent to death. As Theram- 
enes drank the cup of hemlock, he poured out the dregs 
with the exclamation, '• Here's to the gentle Critias," inti- 
mating in sportive mockery that it would soon be his 
destroyer's turn to die. 

The death of Theramenes left Critias free to pursue his Return of the 

patriots. 

policy of terrorism. He continued the butchery till the xen. Hell. 
number of victims amounted in the end to fifteen hundred : "-4; 

Arist. Atk. 

he followed the non-privileged citizens into the country and const. 37. 



254 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



Xen. op. cit 



Reconcilia- 
tion and 
amnesty, 
403 B.C. 

Xen. Hell. 

ii, 4; 

Arist. Const. 

Ath. 38 f. 



drove them beyond the border. Naturally the crowd of 
exiles swelled to a formidable number. At the head of a 
band of seventy patriots, Thrasybulus crossed the border 
from Thebes, seized Phyle, a strong fort high up in Mount 
Parnes, and maintained it against an attack of the enemies' 
forces. Soon afterwards, with his army increased to a 
thousand, he seized Peirseus. The Thirty with their Lace- 
daemonian garrison and native supporters marched down to 
attack him. " Yonder on the left," said Thrasybulus to the 
patriots, "you see the Thirty. These are the men who 
have robbed us of our city, hounded us from our homes, 
and set the seal of proscription on our dearest friends. But 
to-day the wheel of fortune has revolved ; the gods fight on 
our side. Let fly your missiles with a will in right brave 
style, and bear yourselves as if success depended on each of 
you alone. Victory, God willing, shall this day restore to 
us the land of our fathers, our homes, and freedom. Wreak 
vengeance on yonder men for their wanton insolence ! " 
The Thirty were beaten and Critias was killed. Lysander 
interfered to support the tyrants, but King Pausanias, 
through jealousy of Lysander, gave his aid with more effect 
to the patriots. 

Through the mediation of Pausanias a happy reconcilia- 
tion took place between the supporters of oligarchy and the 
returned exiles. An amnesty was granted to all with the 
exception of the Thirty and a few other guilty officials. 
While speaking on this subject in a public assembly, Thrasy- 
bulus fittingly expressed the moral of the long and horri- 
ble story of strife — now so fortunately ended — between 
the " better class " and the people of Athens. " Men of the 
city," he said, addressing the former, " my advice to you 
is that you learn to know yourselves ; and to help you 
in this, I shall enumerate your good qualities on the ground 



The ^^ Better Class'' and the People 255 

of which you claim the right to rule over us. Is it that you Xen. op. cit. 
are more just than we ? Nay, the people, who are poorer, 
have never tried to plunder you ; but you, whose wealth would 
outweigh the whole of ours, have wrought many a shameful 
deed for the sake of gain. If then you have no monopoly 
of justice, can it be on the score of courage that you are 
warranted in holding your heads so high? Nay, but the 
arbitrament of war has just decided that against you. Or 
do you claim superiority of intelligence ? You, who with all 
your wealth of arms and walls, money and Peloponnesian 
allies, have been paralyzed by men w^ho have had none of 
these things to aid them ! Or is it on these Laconian 
friends of yours that you pride yourselves ? What ! when . 
these same friends have muzzled your government hke a 
snappish cur and handed it over to the people, as its mas- 
ters, for punishment. But do not you, the people," turning 
to the multitude, " misconceive me. I beg you to crown 
your list of exploits by one final display of virtue. Show to 
the world that you can be faithful to your oaths and 
flawless in your conduct." 

The moderation of the Athenians in maintaining the am- Democracy 
nesty is a practical refutation of the charges against their ^""^ °^^" 
democracy. The two recent ohgarchic experiments — the 
rule of the Four Hundred and that of the Thirty — proved, 
on the other hand, that the government of the so-called 
" better class " was a delusion and a he, and that the men 
who claimed superior privileges on the basis of assumed 
virtue were in reahty cut-throats and robbers. Henceforth 
Athens was content with democracy. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, the state remained as narrow as ever. Thrasybulus, 
one of the most hberal minded of Greek statesmen, attempted 
to enfranchise all who in the recent strife had cast their lot 
with the patriots, including alien residents, and even some 



256 



The SiLpremacy of Sparta 



p. 178. 



Lysander 
in trouble, 
403 B.C. 



Crisis at 
Sparta. 



Xen. Hell. 
ii, 3- 

Plutarch, 
Agesilaus. 

P. 61. 



slaves ; but the contrary policy prevailed, and it was re- 
enacted that only those should be citizens whose parents 
were both Athenians. 

In the overthrow of the Thirty, Lysander suffered a severe 
defeat. Some of the most influential Spartans, among them 
King Pausanias, feared that his popularity would prove dan- 
gerous to Lacedaemon, and it was partly for this reason that 
the king had aided in the restoration of the Athenian democ- 
racy. Lysander was still influential throughout ^gean 
Greece ; the friends he had established in power worshipped 
him. In the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus, they set 
up his statue near that of the goddess ; the Samian oligarchs 
changed the name of their chief religious festival from Heraea 
to Lysandria in his honor. Lysander held court in Samos, 
and surrounded himself with men who flattered him in verse ; 
at the same time he was merciless towards the common 
people, while he plotted to make himself master of all 
Greece. But when the ephors summoned him home to 
answer for his conduct, he came relying on his popularity ; 
he avoided trial, however, on the pretext that he had vowed 
a pilgrimage to the shrine of Ammon in Libya. The ephors 
gave him permission to go. 

At this time the society and government of Lacedaemon 
were passing through a crisis. At the close of the war 
Lysander had brought a great sum of silver to Sparta, — 
the gift of Cyrus. In addition to this, it was enacted that 
the Greeks should pay to Lacedaemon an annual tribute of 
a thousand talents. Some good old-fashioned Spartans pro- 
tested against this innovation ; the iron money of the fathers 
satisfied them, and this "foreign corruption," if imported, 
would infect the morals of all. Though a law was passed 
which restricted the use of gold and silver to state purposes, 
it was easily evaded by the citizens. By violating the law 



Agesilaus 257 

some grew immensely rich ; while the more honest were 
reduced to poverty through the rise in prices. Luxuries, 
hitherto forbidden, now crept in, and the discipline began 
to relax. 

The new imperial position of Lacedsemon was beset with Sparta and 
difficulties. As long as Sparta was simply the head of a ^^ empire, 
league of independent cities, everything worked well ; but 
the Lacedaemonians were incompetent morally and intel- 
lectually for the task of ruling an empire. They were with- 
out experience in the administration of finance and justice, 
and the officials whom they sent beyond their border proved, QCp. 148. 
now as ever, cruel, oppressive, and corrupt. Though on re- 
calling Lysander they had abolished most of the decarchies, 
the system of harmosts and garrisons was to be indefinitely 
retained. The attitude of Sparta towards her Peloponnesian 
allies also changed for the worse ; she began to disregard 
their rights, and to treat them as subjects, like her own peri- P. 60. 
oeci. Because Elis wished to be free, King Agis ravaged 398-397 b.c. 
her territory for two years and dedicated a tenth of the spoil 
to Apollo, as though the god of Hellas took pleasure in see- 
ing his citizens pillaged. 

Soon after closing this infamous campaign, Agis died and Accession of 

his brother Asresilaus reigned in his stead. This manner of ^^^^ ^^^' 

.397 B.C. 
succession was new in Sparta. Leotychidas, son of Agis, ^^^ ^^^^ 

was the lawful heir ; but Lysander, who had recovered his iii, 3. 

influence, by throwing suspicion on the birth of the son 

contrived to have the brother made king. Disappointed in 

his hope of gaining the supreme power, Lysander became a 

king-maker with the expectation of enjoying the substance 

of authority. 

Agesilaus is an interesting person. The little lame man Character. 

was gentle and courteous ; he had always obeyed his supe- ^^"- ^^^■^^" 

riors and was supposed to be very pliable. Though now Agesilaus. 

s 



258 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



Revolution 
threatenincr. 



P.S9ff. 



Cinadon's 
conspiracy. 

Xen. Hell. 



forty years of age, he was wholly inexperienced in com- 
mand ; and every one thought he would be a mere tool of 
Lysander, with whom he had intimately associated. Noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth. The character of 
Agesilaus was spotless ; his unselfish devotion to his native 
city contrasts with the personal ambition of Lysander. 
Faithful in friendship, simple in life, and incorruptible, he 
was an ideal Spartan. But he had a Spartan's narrowness ; 
and though he was called to rule a great part of Hellas, his 
sympathies were confined to his own city. 

Kings were of little importance now in Lacedaemon ; 
they had dignity but little real power. Though nominally 
in command of the army, they were checked by a council 
of war composed of ephors or their deputies. The fleet 
was under the nauarch, or admiral, who was directly sub- 
ordinate to the ephors. The power of the ephors was sup- 
ported by the "peers," or fully privileged Spartans, who 
were members of the wealthy families. The " inferiors," 
perioeci, and helots formed the discontented class. By 
favoring this class the kings had been seeking to make 
themselves independent of the ephors. There can be no 
doubt that before the accession of Agesilaus, Lysander him- 
self schemed to overthrow the ephorate with the help of the 
dependent population ; and though his plan was never 
brought to maturity, the new king had scarcely reigned a 
year when he was called upon to face a conspiracy which 
threatened the existence of the state. 

" When he was sacrificing one day in behalf of the city, 
the soothsayer warned him, saying, ' The gods reveal a con- 
spiracy of the most fearful character : ' and when the king 
had sacrificed a second time, he said, ' The aspect of the 
victims is now even yet more terrible ; ' but when he had 
sacrificed for the third time, the soothsayer exclaimed, 



Cmadoii 



259 



* O Agesilaus, the sign is given to me, even as though we 
were in the midst of the enemy.' Thereupon they sacri- 
ficed to the deities who avert evil and work salvation, and 
so barely obtained good omens and ceased sacrificing. 
Nor had five days elapsed after the sacrifices were ended 
ere one came bringing the information to the ephors of a 
conspiracy, and named Cinadon as the ringleader, a young 




Spartan Vase 



man robust of body as of soul, but not one of the peers. 
Accordingly the ephors questioned their informant : ' How 
say you the occurrence is to take place ? ' and he who gave 
the information answered : ' Cinadon took me to the limit 
of the market-place, and bade me count how many Spartans 
there were in the market-place ; and I counted — kings. 



26o The Supremacy of Sparta 

ephors, elders, and others — maybe forty. But tell me, 
Cinadon, I said to him, why have you bidden me count 
them ? and he answered me : Those men, I would have you 
know, are your sworn foes ; and all those others, more than 
four thousand congregated there, are your natural allies. 
Then he took and showed me in the streets, here one and 
there two of our enemies, as we chanced to come across 
them, and all the rest our natural allies ; and so again, run- 
ning through the list of Spartans to be found in the country 
districts, he still kept harping on that string : Look you, on 
each estate one foeman — the master — and all the rest 
aUies.' The ephors asked, ' How many do you reckon are 
in the secret of this matter?' The informant answered, 
'On that point also he gave me to understand that there 
were by no means many in their secret who were prime 
movers of the affair, but those few to be depended on ; and 
to make up, said he, we ourselves are in their secret, all the 
rest of them — helots, enfranchised, inferiors, perioeci, one 
and all. Note their demeanor when Spartans chance to be 
the topic of their talk. Not one of them can conceal the 
delight it would give him if he might eat up every Spartan 
raw.'" 

On investigation, the ephors found that weapons had been 
secretly collected and that the blow might be expected to 
fall at any moment. They arrested Cinadon and compelled 
him to confess his accomplices. When they asked him the 
object of his undertaking, he rephed : " I wished to be in- 
ferior to no man in Lacedaemon." Thereupon the ephors 
had the ringleaders driven with scourges about the city and 
afterwards put to death. Cinadon was a brave man, who 
conspired because he believed himself to be unjustly de- 
barred from the privileges of citizenship. Sparta, as the 
affair plainly shows, was now like a city built about the 



The Ten Thousand 261 

crater of a volcano, likely at any moment to be destroyed 
by a political eruption. 

Agesilaus, sincerely devoted to the constitution, surprised Agesiiaus 
every one by respecting the ephors. Best of all, he made "^ ° ^ . 
himself master of Lysander, — another great surprise which 
gratified the ephors. At his request they appointed him to 
the command in Asia Minor to lead the Greeks in a war 
against Persia. 

The causes of this war were as follows. On the death of The expedi- 
Darius, the late king of Persia, Artaxerxes, the elder son, ^°"°^ ^'^^^' 

401 B.C. 

succeeded to the throne, while Cyrus, the younger, retained xen. 
at Sardis the command of the most desirable part of Asia Anabasis. 
Minor. But Cyrus aspired to the sovereignty in place of P. 233. 
his brother. Gathering accordingly a force of a hundred 
thousand Asiatics and thirteen thousand mercenary Greeks, 
he marched into the very, heart of the Persian empire, and 
met his brother in battle at Cunaxa, near Babylon. Cyrus 
was killed and his Asiatics retired from the field ; but the 
Greeks were victorious over the forces of the king, though 
they numbered four hundred thousand or more. Then the 
Greeks, under a truce, began their retreat in a northerly 
direction. Their generals were entrapped and slain by Tis- 
saphernes, a rival of Cyrus, but they appointed new leaders, 
giving the chief place to the Spartan Cheirisophus. And 
though they were beset on all sides by enemies and were 
traversing a country wholly unknown to them and exceed- 
ingly difficult of passage, they kept their courage and dis- 
cipline, and proved by their conduct that the Greeks were Holm, iii, 
able to govern themselves. More than eight thousand P" ^ ' 
reached the Black Sea in safety and thence returned to 
Greece. Xenophon, an Athenian of the school of Socrates, Xenophon. 
was, according to his own account, the inspiring genius of 
the retreat; it was owing to his prudence and eloquence 



262 



The StLpreniacy of Sparta 



War between 
Lacedaemon 
and Persia. 



P. 228. 



400 B.C. 
Xen. Hell. 
iii. I. 



Battle off 
Cnidus, 
394 B.C. 



that the army held together at critical moments. If the 
story of the retreat of the " Ten Thousand," which Xeno- 
phon tells so interestingly in his Anabasis, is true, the author 
must have been one of the ablest commanders of his age. 

The expedition of Cyrus had two important effects : first, 
it brought the Persian power into contempt among the 
Greeks, and second, it immediately caused war between 
Persia and Lacedaemon. For this state, by supporting Cy- 
rus, had incurred the anger of the Persian king. Then, too, 
Tissaphernes, successor of Cyrus as governor of Sardis, 
began to subdue the Greeks of Asia Minor, who in turn 
appealed to Sparta for help. In answer to the request, a 
strong force of Peloponnesians immediately crossed to Asia 
Minor and, incorporating the remnant of the Ten Thousand, 
began war upon the Persians. In 396 B.C. Agesilaus came 
with a few thousand additional troops and took command 
in person. It was his wish to liberate all the Asiatic Greeks. 
As the expedition of Cyrus had taught him how weak the 
Persians were, he even hoped to overthrow their empire. 
The Greeks were enterprising, ready to seek new homes 
and employment wherever they could do so in peace ; but 
for two centuries they had been confined to a narrow sec- 
tion of the Mediterranean. If the world was to enjoy the 
benefits of their civilization, it was necessary that the bar- 
riers on the east and the west be torn down. This cam- 
paign of Agesilaus is interesting as an attempt to opeij Asia 
to Hellenic civilization. Henceforth the Greeks never lost 
sight of the idea till it was realized by Alexander the 
Great. 

Agesilaus succeeded in freeing the Greeks ; but while he 
was gaining ground on land, his navy was destroyed off 
Cnidus by a Greek and Phoenician fleet under the Athe- 
nian Conon in Persian service. Thus the Spartan naval 



The CorintJnan War 



263 



supremacy, established originally by Persian gold, fell at a 

single blow. Conon sailed from island to island, expelling Xen. Hell. 

the harmosts and freeing all from Lacedaemonian rule. ^^' ^* 

As Sparta had proved ungrateful for Persian help, the 

king's gold was now thrown into the balance against her. 

The next year Conon anchored his fleet in the harbors 393 e.g. 

of Peiraeus, and with the help of Persia and of the 

neighbors of Athens he began to rebuild the Long Walls. 

His city was again to count as a great power in Greece. 

But even before the battle was fought off Cnidus, a war The Corin- 

asrainst Sparta broke out in continental Greece. The gov- ^^^^^'^ ^'^^' 
. 395-387 B.C. 

erning city was tyrannical ; the greater allied states, as xen. Hell. 

Thebes and Corinth, wished to share in the profits of the "'• 5 ff- 




Citadel ok Corinth 



war with Athens, while the lesser communities desired at 
least their independence. As they were all disappointed in 
their hopes, they began to show discontent. The greater 



264 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



Agesilaus 
recalled. 



Xen. Hell. 
iv, 2. 



Iphicrates, 



States had refused to take part in the Asiatic campaign ; the 
Boeotians had gone so far as to insult Agesilaus by over- 
turning his sacrifices at Auhs, when he was on the point of 
embarking for Asia; in 395 B.C. they provoked Lacedae- 
mon to a war which lasted eight years. This was called 
the Corinthian War because the struggle centred chiefly 
about Corinth and the Isthmus. Athens, Corinth, and 
several other states took the side of Boeotia, while Persia 
supplied the funds. The condition of Greece had become 
deplorable. Sparta, too weak to rule by force, had not the 
wisdom to govern according to law. As the Peloponnesian 
War had destroyed the Athenian empire, the Corinthian 
War disorganized the Peloponnesian League ; the tradi- 
tional state system of Hellas, which had long served as the 
basis of her civilization, was crumbling. 

Lysander had been killed early in the war, and Pausanias 
had proved inefficient ; so it became necessary to recall 
Agesilaus. This was a grievous blow to his hopes; both 
commander and soldiers regretted giving up the war with 
Persia in order to turn their arras against their fellow-Hel- 
lenes. "To aid the fatherland," said he to the Asiatic 
Greeks, " is an imperative duty. If, however, matters turn 
out well on the other side, rely upon it, friends and aUies, I 
will not forget you, but shall be back anon to carry out your 
wishes." Though on his return Agesilaus gained victories," 
he could not remedy the troubles. Indeed, the military 
prestige of Sparta, which since the dawn of history had 
but once been called into question,^ received a severe and 
lasting shock at the hands of the Athenian Iphicrates. It 
was he who adapted the military system of his state to the 
new conditions of warfare. The armies of the Greek cities 
were no longer made up mainly of citizens, as in former time, 

1 After the capture of Sphacteria; p. 202. 



Iphicrates 265 

but in large part of mercenaries. The inhabitants of the 
older countries of Hellas — the parts which had longest been 
civilized — were disinclined to military service ; they pre- 
ferred the enjoyments of peace. But the political organiza- 
tion of Greece was not yet well enough developed to prevent 
continual war between the states. The peace-loving com- 
munities, as Athens and Corinth, accordingly employed 
mercenaries, drawing them mainly from the less developed 
states, as yEtolia and Acarnania, which still remained great 
storehouses ofmihtary strength. Now professional soldiers, 
who had to travel about a great deal more than citizens, 
found hopHte service exceedingly cumbersome ; Iphicrates 
therefore solved a great problem in warfare by so increasing 
the efficiency of light-armed troops that they could cope 
successfully with the hoplites. First he made their shields 
smaller and their pikes and swords heavier and longer, — 
that is, while weakening their means of defence, he greatly 
strengthened their offensive arms. Then he put them 
through a careful training that they might act as individuals 
rather than in mass. Their nimbleness and dexterity sup- 
plied the lack of defensive armor and at the same time gave 
them the advantage over heavy infantry. After experiment- 390 b.c. 
ing successfully with his light-armed troops to assure himself ■^^"' '^'^^^• 

iv, 5. 

of their superiority to heavy-armed, he attacked in the 
neighborhood of Corinth a mora, or battalion, of Spartan 
heavy infantry, six hundred strong, and cut it to pieces. 
The Lacedaemonians never fully recovered from the blow ; 
the military organization which had been the foundation of 
their supremacy in Greece proved defective. 

The Lacedaemonians acknowledged their failure in the Treaty of 
war by coming to terms with Persia. The king was ready '^'^^^^'^l^^s, 
to use his money and influence for the preservation of a 
peace which should assure him the possession of Asia Minor ; 



266 



TJie Supremacy of Sparta 



Xen. Hell. 

V. I. 



Pp. 24, 166. 



Lacedasmon 
opposes fed- 
erations. 



383-379 B-C. 



and LacedGemon could do nothing but accept these terms. 
Accordingly her ambassador, Antalcidas, and Tirabazus, the 
king's legate, invited all the Greek states to send deputies to 
Sardis for the purpose of concluding peace. When they 
arrived, Tiribazus showed them the king's seal on a docu- 
ment which he held in his hand, and read from it the follow- 
ing terms of peace imposed by Persia upon the Greek states : 
" King Artaxerxes deems it just that the cities in Asia, with 
the islands of Clazomenae and Cyprus, should belong to 
himself; the rest of the Hellenic cities, both small and 
great, he will leave independent, with the exception of 
Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, which three are to belong to 
Athens as of yore. Should any of the parties concerned not 
accept this peace, I, Artaxerxes, together with those who 
share my views, will war against the offenders by land and 
sea, with ships and money." As the Greek states believed 
it impossible to wage war successfully with Lacedaemon and 
Persia at once, they accepted the terms. Thebes yielded 
with the greatest reluctance, for the treaty required her to 
give up her supremacy over Boeotia. By the treaty of 
Antalcidas, the Greeks acknowledged their inability for 
the present to keep peace among themselves ; hence they 
called Persia in to arbitrate between them, and yielded ' 
Asiatic Greece as the price of the king's interference. As 
executor of his will, Lacedsemon again became the undis- 
puted head of eastern Greece. 

The Lacedaemonians still ruled according to the policy 
of Lysander, — a combination of brute force and cunning. 
They especially attempted to strengthen their position by 
weakening the states from which they might expect resist- 
ance. First they destroyed the city of Mantineia, and scat- 
tered the inhabitants in villages. Then in northern Greece 
they assailed the Chalcidic Federation, which though re- 



TJie CJialcidic Federation 



267 



cently formed had already grown powerful. Litde is known 

of the constitution of this league, but enough to suggest that 

the Chalcidians had solved at last the great problem which 

had confronted the Greeks for centuries, — how their cities 

might retain each its identity, and yet be merged in one 

large state with equal rights for all. The cities of this Xen. HelL 

league had become municipalities ; the citizens could live ^'' ^" 

and hold land in whichever cities they pleased, and marry 




The Plain of Mantineia 

with whom they willed. Though Olynthus was the capital, 
the men of that city enjoyed no superior rights. The new 
organization was called, not the Olynthian, but the Chalcidic 
League. It had already developed a strong military power, 
and was rapidly extending through force and diplomacy ; it 
threatened to absorb Macedon, and invited Athens and 
Thebes to join it. Had it been allowed to grow, there is 
some ground for believing that it might have brought all 



268 



The Siipremacy of Sparta 



Seizure of the 
Cadmeia, 
383 B.C. 



Climax of 
prosperity. 
Xen. Hell. 
V. 3-4. 



" Pride goeth 
before de- 
struction." 



Tyranny 
arouses re- 
sistance. 



Hellas into one great state, and thus have proved the politi- 
cal salvation of the Greeks. The Lacedaemonians, however, 
by destroying the league, and by the general policy of 
opposition to federalism, checked the growth of organic 
unity and left Greece weak against foreign enemies. 

While at war with Chalcidice, they seized the Cadmeia, 
citadel of Thebes, and occupied it with a garrison in open 
violation of all law. Even the citizens of Sparta, not to 
speak of the Greeks in general, were indignant with Phoe- 
bidas, who had done the violent deed ; but Agesilaus excused 
him on the ground that the act was advantageous to Sparta, 
thus setting forth clearly the principle that Greece was to be 
ruled for the benefit merely of the governing city. Though 
the Lacedaemonians punished Phoebidas, they approved the 
deed by leaving the garrison in the Cadmeia. 

" On every side the affairs of Lacedaemon had signally 
prospered: Thebes and the other Boeotian states lay abso- 
lutely at her feet ; Corinth had become her most faithful 
ally ; Argos . . . was humbled to the dust ; Athens was 
isolated ; and lastly, those of her own aUies who had dis- 
played a hostile feeling towards her had been punished ; so 
that, to all outward appearance, the foundations of • her 
empire were well and firmly laid. 

''Abundant examples might be found ahke in Hellenic 
and in foreign history, to prove that the divine powers mark 
what is done amiss, winking neither at impiety nor at the 
commission of unhallowed acts; in the present instance, 
the Lacedaemonians, who had pledged themselves by oath 
to leave the states independent, had laid violent hands on 
the citadel of Thebes, and were eventually punished by the 
victims of that iniquity single-handed." 

With these words Xenophon prepares the reader for 
understanding the sudden reverse in the fortunes of the 



\ 



The Rise of Thebes 269 

Lacedaemonians. Sparta was now the acknowledged leader 
of all eastern Greece, supported by Persia on the east and 
by Dionysius, the absolute ruler of the West. It probably 
appeared to Agesilaus that the political unification of Hellas 
was achieved. But the policy of the ruling city was soon to 
awaken moral forces which were to overthrow her supremacy 
forever. Resistance was first aroused in Thebes, where the 
oppressor's hand was heaviest. In that city the polemarchs, 
as representatives of the oligarchic party, ruled by terror- 
ism, imprisoning some of the opposite party and banish- 
ing others. The exiles took refuge in Athens, and there 
found sympathy. Among the refugees was Pelopidas, a Piut. 
wealthy Theban, full of patriotism and brave to recklessness, ^^'■^P'-^'^^' 
— the very man his city needed to save her. Pelopidas 
had left behind him in Thebes an intimate friend, Epami- 
nondas, an orator of remarkable keenness and force, and a 
philosopher of the Pythagorean school. 

The oligarchs thought Epaminondas a harmless dreamer ; Epaminon- 
but while they allowed him to remain unmolested at home, ^^^' 
he was attracting into his school the most capable youths of 
Thebes, and was arousing in them the moral power which 
was to set his country free. The young Thebans, who 
delighted in physical training, learned from the philosopher 
that mere size of muscle was of no advantage, that they 
should aim rather at agility and endurance. He encouraged 
them to wrestle with the Lacedaemonian soldiers in the 
Cadmeia, that, when the crisis should come, they might meet 
them without fear. 

Meantime Pelopidas at Athens was planning to return Theban 

with the exiles to overthrow the oligarchy. He often told P^*"°^^ ^" 

° ^ Athens. 

them at their meetings that it was both dishonorable and 

impious to neglect their enslaved country, and that they Xen. //^//. 

V 4 * Plut 

should emulate the heroic courage of Thrasybulus ; as he pdlpidas ' 



270 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



P.253f. 



Fall of the 
Theban 
oligarchy, 
379 B.C. 



Athenian 
maritime 
confederacy, 
377 B.C. 



had advanced from Thebes to break the power of the 
Athenian tyrants, so they should march from Athens to 
free Thebes. Four years passed in this manner and it was 
now the winter of 379 B.C. Olynthus had fallen, resistance 
to Sparta was becoming every day more hopeless, there 
was need of haste. 

Selecting a hundred of his most faithful friends, Pelopidas 
led them to Eleusis. There twelve of the younger men, 
including Pelopidas, eagerly undertook the dangerous task 
of striking a secret blow for their country. They dressed 
themselves like' huntsmen, and, accompanied by dogs, 
crossed Mount Parnes towards Thebes in groups of two 
and three. A snow-storm had just set in when at dark 
these men, their faces muffled in their cloaks, entered the 
city by various gates and met at the house of Charon, 
leader of another band of conspirators. On the following 
night, Phyllidas, an official who was also in the plot, held 
a banquet to which he invited all the polemarchs except 
Leontiades, the head of the oHgarchic party. 

While these magistrates were carousing, some of the 
conspirators entered disguised as women and killed them. 
At the same time Pelopidas with two companions went to 
the house of Leontiades, and after a hard struggle made 
away with him. The next morning Epaminondas intro- 
duced the leaders of the conspiracy to the assembled 
citizens, who elected them Boeotarchs, or chief magistrates 
of Boeotia. A democracy was now established, and the 
garrison in the Cadmeia surrendered with the privilege of 
departing unharmed. Thebes was again free. 

The Athenians, though in sympathy with their neighbor, 
would gladly have remained neutral, had not the Lacedae- 
monians driven them to war by a treacherous attempt to 
seize Peiraeus. Sphodrias, who was guilty of this violation 



TJie Athenian Confederacy 271 

of interstate law, was tried and condemned at Sparta ; but 
Agesilaus pardoned him on the ground that '* he had ahvays 
been constant to the call of honor and that Sparta needed Xen. op. cit. 
such men." The maritime cities of the ^gean, which 
since the battle of Cnidus had again been looking to Athens 
for protection; now renewed their alhance with her. The 
new league was to be a union of the Greeks for the defence 
of their liberties against Sparta. Each allied state sent a 
deputy to a congress at Athens. It was agreed that the Gilbert, 
leading city alone should have no representative in this P' ^^35 ff- 
body in order that the deputies might not be influenced by 
the presidency or even by the presence of an Athenian. 
A measure to be binding on the league must receive the 
approval of both Athens and congress. This arrangement 
made the leading city equal to all the others combined, 
but prevented her from acquiring absolute power such as 
she had exercised over the members of the earlier league. 
And as the planting of Athenian colonies within the allied P- 170- 
states had in the preceding century been a cause of sore 
complaint, Athens agreed to offend no more in this respect. 
There were to be contributions of ships and money as 
before, but since the leading city was no longer in a posi- 
tion to compel the allies to perform their duties, the league 
remained far weaker than it had been in the preceding 
century. 

As the new alliance included Thebes and about seventy Hellenic 
other cities, it was more than a match for Peloponnese : but P^^'^^ ^°"" 

vention, 

the Thebans finally withdrew from the war and busied 371 b.c 
themselves with subduing the Boeotian towns. Athens, 
left to carry on the struggle alone and displeased with the 
policy of Thebes in relation to Boeotia, opened negotia- 
tions with Lacedaemon. Thereupon a convention of all the 
Greek states met in Sparta to establish an Hellenic peace. 



2/2 The Supremacy of Sparta 

Though the treaty of Antalcidas was renewed, the Persian 

kmg could no longer arbitrate between the Greeks, — they 

now felt able to manage their own affairs. It is interesting 

to see them acting together in the interest of peace and 

endeavoring to form one Hellenic state on the basis of local 

independence and equal rights. The convention resolved 

to accept peace on the following terms : " the withdrawal 

Xen. Hell. of harmosts from the cities, the disbanding of armaments 

^ ' ^' naval and military, and the guarantee of independence to 

the states. If any state transgressed these stipulations, it 

lay in the option of any power whatsoever to aid the states 

so injured, while conversely, to bring such aid was not 

compulsory on any power against its will." 

Epaminon- Though all were ready to make peace on these terms, 

as ear s trouble arose in regard to ratifying the treaty. Sparta was 

the lion in ° j ^ j r 

his den. permitted to sign in behalf of her alHes on promising to 

leave them their freedom. Reserving this especial privi- 
lege for herself, Sparta ordered all the other leagues to 
dissolve. When, accordingly, Agesilaus demanded that the 
Piut. Peiopi- Boeotian towns should be permitted to sign for themselves, 
^' .^"" Epaminondas, the Theban deputy, declared that his city 
cf. Freeman, had as good a right to represent all Boeotia as Sparta to 
Fed.Gov. represent all Laconia. His boldness startled the conven- 
tion. For ages the Greeks had stood in awe of Sparta, 
and no one had dared question her authority within the 
borders of Lacedaemon. But the deputy from Thebes was 
winning his point with the members when Agesilaus in 
great rage sprang to his feet and bade him say once for 
all whether Boeotia should be independent. "Yes, if you 
will give the same freedom to Laconia," Epaminondas re- 
plied. The Spartan king then struck the name of Thebes 
from the list of states represented in the convention, ex- 
cluding her thus from the peace. 



P- 137- 



Battle of Leuctra 



273 



THETHEBAN TACTICS 

IN THE 

BATTLE OF LEUCTJIA 



The treaty was signed, the convention dissolved, the 
deputies returned home. All eyes turned towards the im- 
pending conflict ; every one expected to see the city of 
Epaminondas punished, perhaps destroyed, for the bold- 
ness of her leader. 

Leuctra was a small town in Boeotia southwest of 
Thebes. The battle fought there in 371 b.c. was in its 
political effects the most important in which only Greeks 
were engaged ; to the student of military science it is one 
of the most interesting in history. 

Epaminondas had of late 
been studying military sci- 
ence, the result of which was 
a sweeping revolution in war- 
fare. The Boeotians had al- 
ways made excellent soldiers, 
and as far back as the batde 
of Delium their commander 
had won by massing his men 
in a heavy phalanx. This 
soHd body of infantry was to 
be the chief element in the 
new military system ; Epam- 
inondas was to convert the 
experiences of his country- 
men into the most important 
principle of military science, 
— the principle of concen- 
trating the attack upon a 
single point of the enemy's 
line. It was mainly by the 
application of this idea that Napoleon won his great vic- 
tories. With Epaminondas it took the form of charg- 



if: 



rrrr 

' ii '' i' i 



c 

Si 



^n 



ni 



a 



b^rj 



Ob 



m 



□ DQDTHEBAN CAVALRY 

a a a, Boeotians 

h, theban column 

e, sacred band 

I, I, THEBANS AND ALLIES BEFORE ADVANCE 

II, II, THEBAN ADVANCE IN ECHELON F0RMATK3N 

III, III, ■■§ SPARTANS, BH5i PELOPONNESIANS 

SHOWING THEBAN COLUMN AND SACRED BAND 
CUTTING THE SPARTAN LINE 



Bormay, C:,.lf..T, 



War between 
Lacedaemon 
and Thebes. 



The battle of 
Leuctra, 
371 B.C. 



The tactics 
of Epami- 
nondas. 



Xen. Hell. 
vi, 4 ; Plut. 
Pelopidas. 



P. 203. 



274 



The Supremacy of Sparta 



End of the 

Spartan 

supremacy. 



ing ill column combined with an oblique advance of his 
entire army. Opposite to the Peloponnesian right, made 
up of Lacedaemonians under King Cleombrotus, he massed 
his left in a column fifty deep and led it to the attack. 
The enemy, drawn up uniformly twelve deep in the old- 
fashioned way, could not withstand the terrific shock. 
The Boeotian centre purposely advanced more slowly 
than the column, and the right still more slowly, so that 
these divisions of the line took only the shghtest part in 
the battle. But the Boeotian cavahers, who were well- 
trained and high-spirited, easily put to rout the inefficient 
horsemen of the enemy, and the Sacred Band, Epam- 
inondas' school of Theban youths, followed the impetuous 
Pelopidas in an irresistible charge on the extreme Spartan 
right. King Cleombrotus was killed, his army thoroughly 
beaten by a force far inferior in number, and the suprem- 
acy of Sparta was at an end. 



Sources 

Reading. Xenophon, Hellenica, ii-vi ; Anabasis, Agesilaus, and other works ; 

Lysias, Orations (not translated); Isocrates, Orations; Aristotle, Ath. 
Const, chs. 34-41; Plutarch, Lysander, Agesilaus ; Diodorus, xiv, xv. 



Modern Authorities 

Holm, History of Greece, II, ch. xxx ; III, chs. i-viii ; Oman, His- 
tory of Greece, chs. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii, xxxix; Sankey, Spartan and 
Theban Supremacies, chs. i-xi ; Allcroft, Sparta and Thebes ; Tima- 
yenis, History of Greece, I, pt. vi ; Curtius, History of Greece, IV, 
bk. V ; bk. vi, ch. i ; Grote, History of Greece, VIII, ch. Ixv-X, 
btxviii. 





g^j^B^^^^gfeaf AiFgiiiiKffiii^ an^manmm»it 


Ik 


■ ,^^3^ 


^^, -- ■ - -. - — -■■ r 'H:^; S .,i^, 








^M 








^^^jjdi^sa^T^&afeiiiaaajiMi^^ 




■*'."'"' 


'iis#f;^¥* '■"■■■^■•■■- ^"^''^^.^;^^MHliii8iil 


— — - — 







Mount Ithome and City Wall of Messene 



CHAPTER XIV 



of her mis- 
fortune. 



THEBES ATTEMPTS TO GAIN THE SUPREMACY (371-362 
B.C.)— THE PROGRESS OF CULTURE 

" After these events, a messenger was despatched to Sparta hears 
Lacedaemon with news of the calamity. He reached his 
destination on the last day of the gymnopsedise, just when 
the chorus of grown men had entered the theatre. The 
ephors heard the mournful tidings not without grief and 
pain, as needs they must, I take it ; but for all that they did 
not dismiss the chorus, but allowed the contest to run out 
its natural course. What they did was to deliver the names Xen. //eii. 
of those who had fallen to their friends and families, with a ^^' '^' 
word of warning to the women not to make any loud lam- 
entation, but to bear their sorrow in silence ; and the next 

275 



2/6 Thebes attempts to gain the Supremacy 



The law 

against 

runaways. 



Plut. 

Agesilaus. 



Lacedaemon 

ruined. 



Anarchy in 
Peloponnese. 



day it was a striking spectacle to see those who had relations 
among the slain moving to and fro in public with bright and 
radiant looks, whilst of those whose friends were reported to 
be living, barely a man was to be seen, and these flitted 
by with lowered heads and scowling brows, as if in humili- 
ation." 

Spartan laws degraded runaways, and deprived them of 
citizenship and of all other honors ; they had to go un- 
washed and meanly clad, with beards half shaven. Any 
one who met them in the street was at liberty to beat them 
and they dared not resist. On the present occasion Sparta 
had sent out seven hundred citizens, of whom three hundred 
had disgraced themselves by surviving defeat. What should 
be done with them ? Being so numerous, they might resist 
punishment ; and besides, as Sparta had only about fifteen 
hundred citizens remaining, to disfranchise three hundred 
would be ruinous. Agesilaus, who was requested by the 
government to settle this serious question, decided to let 
the law sleep in the present case, to be revived, however, 
for the future. In this way he piloted his country safely 
through the crisis. 

The overthrow of the Lacedaemonian power in one battle 
was due to the small number of the Spartans. Rome easily 
recovered from the loss of seventy thousand men at Cannae, 
because she had been liberal in bestowing the franchise upon 
aliens, whereas Lacedaemon, owing to her narrowness, was 
ruined by the loss of a thousand men, only four hundred of 
whom were Spartan citizens. 

In Peloponnese the wildest confusion and anarchy arose. 
To the friends of Sparta it seemed that the world was falling 
into chaos, now that she had lost control, while her enemies 
rejoiced in the freedom assured them by her downfall. The 
first to profit by the revolution were the Arcadians, most of 



Reconstrtictioii of Peloponnese 277 

whom were still shepherds and peasants living in villages, 
and following the Lacedaemonians in war. They now re- 
solved to unite in a permanent league for the defence of 
their hberties. While the Mantineians were rebuilding their P. 266. 
city, which Sparta had destroyed, the Arcadian state founded 




Valley of the Styx in Arcadia 

a new city. Megalopolis, to be the seat of government, and 

a stronghold against Lacedaemon. When the Arcadians TheThebans 

fell into trouble among themselves, and were attacked by ^^^^^^ 

Peloponnese. 

the Lacedaemonians, Epaminondas came to their help at 
the head of a great army consisting of Thebans, and their 
allies from Euboea, Phocis, Locris, Acarnania, and Thessaly. 
The Argives, Eleians, and Arcadians joined him in Pelopon- 
nese, bringing the number of his troops up to seventy thou- 
sand men. With this great host he invaded Laconia, and 
ravaged it from end to end ; for the first time in history, 
Spartan women saw the smoke from the camp-fires of an 
enemy. The city was in a tumult, — the old men were en- 



2/8 Thebes attempts to gain the Stipremacy 

raged at the present condition of things, and the women 
in their terror caused more confusion than the invaders. 
Agesilaus, weighed down with age, saw the great power 
which he had inherited falHng to pieces about him, con- 
spiracies on every hand among high and low, the perioeci 
trooping off to join the enemy, the helots in rebellion, and 
himself reproached as the " kindler of the war." Still he 
applied himself with energy and courage to the sore task of 
defending his unwalled city. Unable to capture Sparta, 

Messenia. Epaminondas went to Messenia to aid the revolt of that 
country. With his help the Messenians built and fortified 
a new city, Messene, near the citadel of Mount Ithome, on 

P. 154. a spot made sacred by many an heroic struggle for liberty. 

The city walls were well built, as may be seen from their 
ruins to-day. In this campaign, Epaminondas had defended 
the newly made Arcadian league, had restored the ancient 
state of Messenia, and had threatened the authority of Sparta 
even in Laconia. The imperial city, robbed of her suprem- 
acy and of half her territory, sank to the position of a second- 
rate power. 

Athens joins Athens, SO far from taking part in reconstructing the 

Sparta. states of Peloponnesc, sympathized with Sparta, her foe for 

the past hundred years. " If danger were ever again to 
visit Hellas from the barbarian world outside," said a friend 

Xen. Hell. of Sparta to the Athenian assembly, " in whom would you 

^'' ^* place your confidence if not in the Lacedaemonians ? 

Whom would you choose to stand at your right hand in 
battle if not these, whose soldiers at Thermopylae to a man 
preferred to fall at their posts rather than save their lives by 
giving the foreigner free passage into Hellas?" The words 
were ominous ; the foreigners were soon to come, when the 
spirit of Lacedaemon was broken and her renown a faded 

P. 155. memory, when Athens without her yoke-mate had to carry 



Theban Rule 279 

the burden of Hellas. The Athenians were persuaded, 
and sent Iphicrates, their best general, to the help of the 
city which had not suffered them to be enslaved by Thebans P. 237. 
and Corinthians after the day of -^gospotami. 

Within the next few years the Thebans extended their Defects in the 
influence over Thessaly and Macedon. As the majority of E?^?^° 
the continental states were their allies, they were now the 
controlling power through the entire length of the peninsula. 
But the Thebans were no better qualified for ruling than the 
Spartans had been. Their chief fault was that they rested 
their system on the narrow basis of their own city. Instead 
of making all the Boeotians Thebans with full privileges in 
the leading city, they attempted to subject them to the con- Pp. 24, 27. 
dition of periceci ; and some towns, as Thespiae and Orcho- 
menus, they even destroyed. As to their more remote allies, 
they had no thought of binding these to themselves by institu- 
tions such as hold the states of our nation together. Epami- 
nondas erred greatly, too, in assuming that the peasants of 
Messenia and Arcadia, who were absolutely without political 
experience, would at once succeed in self-government under 
constitutions made for them by strangers. It was not thus 
that the Romans, the Enghsh, and the Americans became 
self-governing. The Thebans merely substituted chaos for 
order. Peloponnese, united under Lacedsemon, had been 
the citadel of Hellas, the centre of resistance to foreign 
aggression ; and though Sparta was despotic, the Greek 
states had been learning of late to guard their Hberties 
against her, while they still looked to her for protection and 
guidance in time of danger. All this was now changed. 
When Sparta had fallen because of the weakness of her 
system, Thebes, taking her place, broke up Peloponnese into 
warring camps, weakened the only power which was capable 
of defending Hellas, and spread confusion everywhere. 



28o Thebes attempts to gain the Sitpremacy 



Thebes calls 
Persia in. 



Xen. Hell. 
vii, I. 



Epaminon- 
das as 
admiral. 



When it became apparent to the Thebans themselves that 
they were too weak to maintain order in Hellas, they sent 
Pelopidas as ambassador to Susa to bring the influence and 
money of the king to bear once more in favor of peace. 
Representatives of the other states of Greece joined in the 
negotiations. Artaxerxes readily agreed that the Hellenic 
cities should all be independent and that Athens should 
disband her fleet ; but the Athenian ambassador, Leon, 
informed the king emphatically that his state would not 
Hsten to the latter proposition : " Upon my word ! Athe- 
nians," he exclaimed, ^' it strikes me that it is high time you 
looked for some other friend than the great king." The 
Arcadian ambassador conceived the utmost contempt for 
the sovereign of Asia : " The king," he reported to his 
countrymen on his return, " appears to have a large army 
of confectioners and pastry-cooks, butlers and doorkeepers, 
but no men capable of doing battle with the Greeks. Be- 
sides all which, even the report of his wealth is bombastic 
nonsense. Why, the golden plane tree so much belauded 
is not big enough to furnish shade to a single grasshopper." 

The Greeks were opening their eyes to the weakness of 
Persia ; and when Thebes went through the farce of calling 
a general Hellenic convention, in imitation of that of Antal- 
cidas, the deputies refused to be either deceived or intim- 
idated by the presence of a Persian satrap carrying the 
document of peace under the king's seal ; nor would the 
states which they represented bind themselves under oath 
to obey the foreign potentate. As the disgraceful play 
ended in failure, Epaminondas turned resolutely to the dis- 
agreeable and almost hopeless task of reducing Greece to 
order by force of iron. The chief resistance to his designs 
came from Athens and Sparta. The maritime city he must 
meet on her own element, as she had refused to dismantle 



sion of 
Peloponnese. 



Battle of Mantineia 281 

her fleet at the command of Persia. Boeotia, though as 
well supplied as Attica with coast-lines, had little commerce 
and no fleet to speak of before Epaminondas. But suddenly 
his state became a naval power, the great tactician stepped 
into the place of admiral, and an armament went forth to 
sweep Athens from the sea. Could Epaminondas have been 
free a year or two to carry on his naval operations, he might 
by overthrowing Athens have introduced as much confusion 
into the ^gean as he had brought to Peloponnese by the 
ruin of Lacedaemon. 

But Epaminondas had no time for this. All Peloponnese His last inva 
had long been in a ferment ; the states were jumbled to- 
gether in hopeless confusion, and their relations with each 
other were now as changing as the colors of a kaleidoscope. 
To write the history of interstate politics in this period seems 
like attempting to set the noises of Pandemonium to music. 
Epaminondas again marched across the Isthmus to restore 
order. Allies from Euboea and Thessaly joined him ; the 
Phocians refused to take part in his aggressive wars ; the 
more westerly allies were apparently not summoned. The 
Argives, Messenians, and southern Arcadians added their 
forces to his in the Peloponnese. Athens, Sparta, Achaea, 
and northern Arcadia were his chief enemies. The Theban 
commander attempted by forced marches to capture Sparta, 
then Mantineia, in the hope that he might thus accomplish 
his object without a battle ; but in both attempts he failed. 

Then came the conflict at Mantineia. Notwithstanding The battle of 
their tedious journeys, the condition of his troops was ex- 
cellent ; they were full of enthusiasm and had absolute con- 
fidence in their commander. " There was no labor which 
they would shrink from, either by night or by day ; there 
was no danger they would flinch from; and, with the 
scantiest provisions, their discipline never failed them. And 



282 Thebes attempts to gain the Snpremacy 



Xen. Hell. 
vii, 5. 



End of Epam- 
inondas 
and of 
Theban 
leadership. 



The two 
friends. 



SO, when he gave them his last orders to prepare for im- 
pendmg battle, they obeyed with alacrity. He spoke the 
word ; the cavalry fell to whitening their helmets, the heavy 
infantry of the Arcadians began inscribing the club (of 
Heracles) as a crest on their shields, in imitation of the 
Thebans, and all were engaged in sharpening their lances 
and swords and in polishing their heavy shields." 

Taking the enemy by surprise, Epaminondas repeated 
the tactics of Leuctra with perfect success. His flying 
column, now in the form of a wedge, cut through the oppos- 
ing ranks and shattered the enemy's host. But the great 
commander in the front fell mortally wounded with ajavehn. 
Carried to the rear, he heard the victorious shouts of the 
Thebans, but when told that his fellow-generals were both 
dead, he advised his countrymen to make peace. The 
surgeon then drew out the javelin point and Epaminondas 
died. Pelopidas had recently been slain in battle in Thes- 
saly. The heroes were buried where they fell j and their 
gravestones in northern and southern Greece stood as monu- 
ments of Theban leadership, which ended with their lives. 

Pelopidas was bold and chivalrous ; a zealous patriot and 
an able commander. Epaminondas was a great military 
genius. Personally he was without ambition, content to 
live as a private citizen, or to serve his state in the lowest 
offices. Absolutely pure in character, he aimed only to 
promote the welfare of his city and of Hellas. Though in 
statesmanship he was as able as any of his time, though his 
ideals were high and his methods honorable, he failed to 
discover the evils of the Hellenic state system, much more 
to remedy them. Fortune was kind to him and to his 
worthy helper in cutting them off at the height of their re- 
nown, — before they could see the failure of their policy and 
be made responsible for it. 



Results of the Battle 283 

The result of the battle of Mantineia was the opposite of Results of 
that which the world expected. " Here where well-nigh *^^^ battle. 
the whole of Hellas was met together in one field, and the 
combatants stood rank against rank confronted, there was 
no one who doubted that, in the event of battle, the con- 
querors this day would rule, and those who lost would be 
their subjects. But God so ordered it that both belligerents Xen. Hell. 
alike set up trophies claiming victory, and neither interfered ^"' 5- 
with the other in the act. Both parties alike gave back their 
enemy's dead under a truce, and in right of victory ; both 
alike, in symbol of defeat, under a truce took back their 
dead. And though both claimed to have won the day, 
neither could show that he had gained thereby any acces- 
sion of territory, or state, or empire, or was better situated 
than before the battle. Uncertainty and confusion indeed had 




Battle between the Greeks and the Amazons 

(Frieze of the Mausoleium, Halicarnassus.) 

gained ground, being tenfold greater throughout the length 
and breadth of Hellas after the battle than before." The con- 
flict put an end to the idea of a city supremacy over Hellas. 



284 Thebes attempts to gain tJie Supremacy 



The progress 
of culture. 



Mahaffy, 
Survey of 
Greek Civi- 
lization, 
P- 175- 



Athens leads. 



P. 222. 



We shall now turn from the politics of the age to follow 
the development of culture through the first half of the 
fourth century B.C. 

Among the countries of central Greece, Boeotia had 
always stood next to Attica in civilization : she had had her 
poets, her orators, her philosophers, and her schools of art ; 
under Epaminondas there was a bloom of culture corre- 
sponding somewhat to that at Athens in the Age of Pericles. 
The overthrow of the Athenian and the Spartan powers and 
the rise of Thebes — the breaking down of traditional bar- 
riers and the constant shifting in the relations between the 
states — contributed greatly to the development and spread 
of culture. " States learned to pass from one alHance to 
another, according as the balance of power required it, and 
became friends of their previous enemies. Embassies went 
from city to city, and learned to know that their neighbors 
were better at home than they had imagined." 

Though all Greece was progressing in culture and in 
humanity, Athens, after the loss of her political leadership, 
came more and more to be the recognized moral and intel- 
lectual head. To the Athenians the result of the Pelopon- 
nesian War was a disappointment from which they never 
recovered. To the very end of the struggle they had en- 
thusiastically sacrificed property and lives to secure for their 
city the leadership of Hellas ; but as their patriotic efforts 
had proved fruitless, each citizen now began to seek happi- 
ness not in the greatness of the state as formerly, but in 
business prosperity and in social and private Hfe. The un- 
fortunate issue of the war checked the progress of centrali- 
zation, that is, the strengthening of the state at the expense 
of the citizens, and set up a tendency towards the develop- 
ment of the individual. 

The spirit of Athens in the fourth century B.C. is em- 



Peace and Wealth 285 

bodied in the work of her sculptor, Cephisodotus. entitled "Peace 
Eirene and Plutus, — ^^ the goddess Peace nursing the infant "^'^sing 

Wealth." 

Wealth." Renouncing her ambition to rule Greece, x\thens ^ a r d 
devoted herself in peace to the production of wealth and of ner, p. 352. 




Eirene and Plutus 

(After Cephisodotus. Munich.) 



culture in the interest of her citizens. Her efforts met with 
success ; while but few men became very wealthy, the peasant 
class was never more numerous or more prosperous than in 



286 Thebes attempts to gain the Supremacy 



Literature. 



From poetry 
to prose. 



P. 220 ff. 



Learning to 
reflect. 



this period. A healthy, happy spirit pervaded country Hfe, 
— a spirit, however, which we do not find in the industries 
because these were carried on by slaves. 

The literature of the age reflects the changed character 
of the people. It was on the whole less imaginative, less 
grand, less forceful, than that of the preceding century, but 
more reflective and humane, with greater breadth of intelli- 
gence and sympathy. 

The first thing we notice in passing from the literature of 
the fifth century B.C. to that of the fourth is the change from 
poetry to prose. Purely Greek poetry was composed to be 
sung or recited in some sort of gathering, — in the court of 
king or noble, in a group of friends at a feast, or in the 
theatre before the whole body of citizens. This kind of 
poetry, after running through the three stages of epic, per- 
sonal or lyric, and dramatic, came to an end with Euripides 
towards the close of the Peloponnesian War ; and the 
poetry thereafter written was, like the modern, intended 
chiefly for reading at home. Comedy, which is half poetry, 
half prose, formed an exception to the rule. Forsaking 
politics and leaving out the chorus, the chief religious ele- 
ment of the drama, it devoted itself to the treatment of 
manners, morals, and private character ; and thus, by ac- 
commodating itself to the changed conditions, it survived 
to give instruction and amusement to the people of a 
new age. 

The change from poetry to prose indicates an increasing 
ability to reflect. While the fifth century is represented by 
only three prominent prose writers, Herodotus, Thucydides, 
and Antiphon, the fourth century is the great age of prose. 
There were three departments of Greek prose literature : 
history, philosophy, and oratory. 

Extant history is represented in this century chiefly by 



Historical Writing 



287 



Xenophon, an Athenian, who got his education in the school History— 
of Socrates and then went with Cyrus on his famous Asiatic ^^"^P^on- 
expedition. After returning with the Ten Thousand and p. 261 f. 
serving for a time under Agesilaus in Asia Minor, he retired 
to private Ufe in EHs on an estate given him by the Lacedae- 
monian government. Banished from Athens on account of 
his connection with Cyrus and with Agesilaus, he spent the 
remainder of his hfe here in hunting and in writing. His 




Theatre at Epidaurus 



Memoirs of Socrates gives us the character and sayings of 
that philosopher from the standpoint of the plain, blunt, 
practical man who could not appreciate the depths of his 
master's teachings. His Hellenica, a continuation of the 
history of Thucydides, covers the period from 410 b.c. to 
the battle of Mantineia, written from the Spartan point of 
view. Though a shallow, partisan narrative, it is our only 



288 Thebes attempts to gain the Supremacy 



continuous story of the period treated, and hence is very 
valuable. He wrote on a variety of other subjects, as hunt- 
ing, housekeeping, the Athenian revenues, and the Lacedae- 
monian constitution. His works are indeed a storehouse 
of knowledge of the times in which he lived ; and the 
author, though neither philosopher nor statesman, shared 
in the humanity and in the breadth of sympathy of his age. 
Oratory. While historical writing declined from Thucydides to 

Xenophon, there was a corresponding improvement in 
oratory. Rhetoric had come to be a part of every man's 
education, so that most Athenians could appreciate a good 
speech or even plead their own cases in court. 

Aristoph. YouVe made your pretty speech perhaps, and gained a little 

Knights, lawsuit 

347 ff- Against a merchant foreigner, by dint of water-drinking, 

And lying long o' nights, composing and repeating, 
And studying as you walked the streets, and wearing out the 

patience 
Of all your friends and intimates, with practising beforehand : 
And now you wonder at yourself elated and delighted 
At your own talent for debate — you silly, saucy coxcomb. 

There was, strictly speaking, no lawyer class at Athens, be- 
cause the laws were so simple that every one could under- 
stand them ; but the oration which the private citizen 
committed to memory and delivered in the law court was 
usually composed for him by a professional speech-writer. 
Lysias, about The most eminent of this class in the early part of the fourth 
450-380 B.C. century B.C. was Lysias, an alien, whose father, Cephalus, had 
come from Syracuse to reside in Peirseus and had established 
a large shield factory there.^ Robbed of his fortune by the 
P. 253. Thirty, Lysias turned to speech-writing as a profession. 

1 For an interesting picture of this family, see the opening scene of 
Plato's Republic. 



Oratory 



289 



His Oration against Eratosthenes, in which he prose- 
cuted this member of the Thirty for the murder of his 
brother, marks an epoch in the history of Hterature ; in it 
the author, disdaining the austere, dignified language of P. 230. 
Antiphon, recurred to the simple vigorous speech of every- 
day hfe. This he developed into an artistic style in which, 
however, he carefully concealed his art. The principle that the 
language of oratory should be the idealized speech of actual 
life controlled him in the rest of his writings and exercised a 
great influence on all prose literature after him. More than 
thirty of his orations have come down to us ; they serve at 
once as models of the 
purest and simplest 
prose and as a means 
of direct contact with 
public and private hfe 
of the author' s time. 
Lysias, though not 
a statesman, longed 
to see Hellas united 
against her two great 
enemies, the tyrant 
Dionysius I of Syra- 
cuse and the Persian 
king. His younger 
contemporary, Isoc- 
rates, also an orator, 
— " the old man elo- 
quent," — was to be 
the great apostle of 
Hellenic ijnity. A 

history of the life and times of this long-lived man would 
cover the entire period from the Age of Pericles to the 
u 




Aphrodite of Cnidus 

(After Praxiteles. Pitti Palace, Florence.) 



I Socrates, 
436-338 B.C. 



P. 244. 



Milton, 
Sonnet x. 



290 Thebes attempts to gain the Supremacy 



Inventor of 
the period. 



His political 
mission. 



overthrow of Hellenic freedom, and would include the 
whole development of Greek prose from Herodotus to 
Demosthenes. He was one of the best educated Athe- 
nians : Socrates as teacher in philosophy, Gorgias as trainer 
in rhetoric, association personally or by letter with nearly all 
of the eminent Greeks of his day, combined with his own 
zeal for knowledge to give him a greater breadth of intelli- 
gence and of sympathy than perhaps any other man of his 
time possessed. He opened a school, first at Chios and 
then at Athens, in which young men could gain a well- 
rounded education and at the same time prepare them- 
selves for life, especially for statesmanship. 

While teaching, Isocrates wrote orations, which, as they 
were to be read rather than delivered, should properly 
be termed essays. His literary style lacked freshness and 
vigor, but was the perfection of art ; his language was 
melodious, his words were chosen with the finest sense 
of the appropriate and arranged with the most delicate 
taste. He was the inventor of the period, — the perfectly 
rounded thought expressed in a symmetrical sentence. 
Through his influence on Cicero he has determined the 
course of development of European literature to the 
present day. 

His political mission was not to electrify the Greeks, as 
their public life had long been feverish, but rather to lull 
them into forgetfulness of their mutual jealousies. He 
believed that nothing would conduce so much to national 
unity as a common war against Persia. This was the theme 
of the Panegyricus, a masterpiece on which he is said to 
have labored ten years. Such teachings had their influence, 
but the result aimed at was not accomplished till the orators 
had given way to the men of action. 

By far the ablest thinker and writer of the age was Plato, 



Philosophy 



291 



the most eminent of the disciples of Socrates. After the Philosophy- 
death of his master he travelled to various parts of Greece ^^°' ^^~ 

A 347 B.C. 

and even to Egypt. In Italy he studied the doctrines of 
Pythagoras ; his connection with the tyrants of Syracuse P. 244 f. 
has already been mentioned. On his return to Athens he 
began teaching in the Academy, which gave its name to Pp. 73. 157- 
his school. Plato is chiefly noted for his theory of ideas ^ 
— a term which he brought into philosophy. According 
to his view, ideas are the only realities ; they are eternal and 
unchangeable, and exist only in heaven ; the things which 
we see in this world 
are only shadows of 
those heavenly forms. 
One is inclined to call 
Plato a theologian pri- 
marily, as he has so 
much to say of God, 
heaven, and the future 
Hfe. With his brilliant 
imagination, too, h e was 
as much a poet as a 
philosopher. 

While engaged in 
teaching, Plato com- 
posed his Dialogues, 
which in conversa- 
tional form set forth 
his philosophic views. 
Socrates, the principal 
speaker, is not the his- 
torical Socrates, but 

rather the author's own mouthpiece. The language is a 
happy blending of prose form with the spirit of poetry. 




The ideal 
state. 



Satyr of Praxiteles 

Marble Faun ' 



(Capltoline Museum, Rome. The 
of Hawthorne.) 



292 TJiebes attempts to gai7i the Supremacy 

Dramatic in the accurate and vivid expression of character, 
beautiful and vital, it reflects the mind of a master whose 
range of thought and fancy seems limitless. The greatest of 
his Dialogues is the Republic, a discussion of the ideal state. 
Plato thought there should be three classes in the state : the 

Pp- 95. 143- philosophers, who should rule, as the Pythagoreans of lower 
Italy ; the warriors, who should guard the state, as the Spartans 

p. 57. in Lacedsemon ; and the common people, who by their labor 

should support the higher classes. This would have been a 
caste system like that of India. Plato believed, too, that there 
should be no family or private property, because these insti- 
tutions fostered selfishness. Though his ideal state was 
neither practicable nor on the whole good, one can hardly 
read the Republic without being Hfted by it to a higher moral 
plane. The author insisted that justice should rule, that 
the state itself was justice " writ large." As to the nation 
of Hellenes, he taught that they should live together as 
members of one family ; they should not injure one another 
by devastating fields, burning houses, and enslaving captives. 
In general it may be said that Plato's teachings were pure 
and ennobling : " My counsel is that we hold fast ever 
to, the heavenly way and follow justice and virtue always, 
considering that the soul is immortal and able to endure 

Plato, Re- every sort of good and every sort of evil. Thus we shall 

pcbhc, 621 j-^g ^g^j. ^Q Qj^g another and to the gods, both while 

(end). 

remaining here and when, like conquerors in the games 
who go round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And 
it shall be well with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage 
of a thousand years which we have been describing." 
Art. Although the great writers of this age were all Athenians, 

and though there were perhaps as many eminent Athenian 
artists now as in any previous age, art flourished more in 
other parts of Greece, especially in Asia Minor. The tem- 



ArchitecUire and Sculpture 



293 




Art serves the 
individual. 



porary decline of Athens was owing chiefly to the fact that, 
impoverished by the Peloponnesian War, she had Httle Cf. p. 284 f. 
money to spend on architecture and sculpture. Even 
Sparta had the advantage of her in this respect. 

In addition to their many new temples, the Greeks began Theatres. 
to build splendid stone theatres far superior to those of the 
preceding century. Every city now aimed to have a theatre 
large enough, if possible, to seat the whole body of citizens. 
One of the most beautiful and best preserved is that at P. 287. 
Epidaurus. Although the temple and the theatre were pubHc, 
art was coming more into the service of individuals. The 
wealthier class began 
to build large, com- 
fortable residences 
and to adorn the 
walls with paintings. 
This improvement ac- 
cords with the spirit 
of the age which 
sought the happiness 
of the individual. 
Folio wng this ten- 
dency, the sculptor 
strove for the first 
time to express the 
emotions. Among 
the most successful 
was Scopas of Paros, 
the land of marble. 
The head of Mele- 
ager, a mythical yEto- 



Scopas. 



Meleager 
(After Scopas. Catajo.) 



Han hero, beheved to be from his hand, shows a 
eagerness of temper," for which his work is noted. 



fiery 



294 TJiebes attempts to gam the Supremacy 



The Mauso- 
leium, 
350 B.C. 

P. 4fr. 



p. 310. 

Praxiteles. 
P. 285. 

P. 289. 



Hawthorne, 
Marble Faun, 
I, ch. i. 

P. 291. 

His Hermes. 



E. A. Gard- 
ner, p. 358 f. 



At Halicarnassus, Scopas with other famous artists of his 
time decorated the Mausoleium, — tomb of Mausolus, king 
of Caria. This work illustrates the value of archaeology to 
the student of history. From the Mycenaean Age to the 
fourth century B.C. neither palaces nor magnificent tombs 
were built in Greece, for no one stood so high above his 
fellows as to require a distinguished abode either in this 
life or after death. The reappearance of such works indi- 
cates the return of monarchy, which, arising on the borders 
of Hellas, — as in Caria, in Epeirus, and in Macedon, — 
extended itself before the close of the century over all 
eastern Greece. 

Of Athenian artists, Cephisodotus has already been men- 
tioned. Praxiteles, a kinsman of his, probably a son, was 
next to Pheidias the most famous sculptor of Greece. His 
Aphrodite of Cnidus, known to us only through copies, is 
said to have been his most beautiful work. The gods in 
the art of the fourth century B.C., having lost much of the 
dignity of the Pheidian type, seem httle different from men 
and women ; though we admire their beauty, they do not 
inspire us with awe. Another work deserves mention be- 
cause of its literary interest. In the Capitoline Museum at 
Rome is a copy of a satyr by Praxiteles, which Hawthorne 
has described in his Alarble Faun : " The whole statue, 
unlike anything else that ever was wrought in that severe 
material of marble, conveys the idea of an amiable and 
sensual creature — easy, mirthful, apt for joUity, yet not 
incapable of being touched with pathos." But the most 
notable statue now in existence is his Hermes, discovered 
in 1877 in the ruins of the temple of Hera at Olympia. 
Gardner calls attention to its "marvellous combination of 
strength and virility of type with softness and dehcacy of 
modelling and with that subtle play of surface in marble. 



Architecture and Scidptiire 295 

which has already distinguished the Attic school, but awaited 
the hand of Praxiteles to bring it to a perfection which has 
never been attained before or since." With all the dehcacy 




The Hermes of Praxiteles 

(Olympia,) 



and grace, it has none of the weakness and effeminacy, of p. 100. 
the Apollo Belvedere. The Hermes of Praxiteles is the 
ideal Greek of the fourth century B.C. 



296 Thebes attempts to gain the Stipremacy 

Sources 

Xenophon, Hellenica, vi, vii ; Plutarch, Pelopidas ; Diodorus, xv. 

Modern Authorities 

(1) Narrative: Holm, History of Greece, III, chs. viii-x, xiii; 
Oman, History of Greece, ch, xl; Sankey, Spartan and Theban Su- 
premacies, ch. xii; Allcroft, Decline of Hellas, chs. i, ii; Roberts, The 
Ancient B(Xotians ; Timayenis, History of Greece, II, pt. vii; Curtius, 
History of Greece, IV, bk. vi, ch. ii; Grote, History of Greece, X, chs. 
Ixxviii-lxxx. 

(2) Culture: Holm, III, ch. xii; Mahaffy, Survey of Greek Civili- 
zation, chs. vi, vii; Social Life in Greece, chs. ix-xiv; Murray, Ancient 
Greek Literature, chs. xiii-xvi; Jebb, Greek Literature, pt. ii, chs. ii, 
iii ; Mayor, Ancient Philosophy, pp. 41-83; Marshall, History of Greek 
Philosophy, chs. xiv-xvii; Tarbell, History of Greek Art^ ch. ix; 
E. A. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, ch. iv. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RISE OF MACEDON (to 338 B.C.) 

We have learned that the coast and island cities of Spread of 

Greece were the first to become civilized. The doings of civilization 

over Greece, 
Argos and Lacedaemon, of Athens and her maritime allies, 

of Syracuse and the other Western colonies, fill the pages of 
Greek history to the end of the Peloponnesian War. But 
in the fourth century B.C. the races of the interior and the 
north of the continent begin to claim their share of atten- 
tion. Thessaly, Epeirus, and Macedon were learning of the 
poets and philosophers who visited them the ideas and 
mode of life of the more advanced Greeks, and were in 
turn to bring into the Hellenic state system, fresh energy 
and new institutions. 

The city-state had produced splendid types of civiHzation ; Old city- 
it had assured the citizens a higher degree of freedom and ^^^^^^ ^^^ 

new territo- 

larger opportunities for education than has been possible rial states. 
under any other form of government ; but because of the 
inability of the cities to join in a larger political union, it 
had failed to protect itself against foreign enemies. In the 
less civilized parts of Greece, people still lived mostly in 
country tribes and were not so prejudiced as city folk 
against combining in large territorial states, such as those 
of modern times. It was inevitable, therefore, that the new 
country-states through youthful vigor and greater size should 
gain the mastery over the old city-states, which had far 
smaller areas and were rapidly growing unwarlike. 

First Thessaly gave promise of winning the leadership of 

297 



298 



The Rise of Mace don 



Jason of 
Pheras. 



Xen. Hell. 
vi, I. 



370 B.C. 



P. 99 f. 

Xen. HelL 
vi, 4. 



Macedon. 

Ciirtius, j, 
p- 15 ; V, p. 

16 ff.; Holm, 
111, ch. xiv. 



Greece. Jason, tyrant of Pherse, by force and diplomacy 
united the four great tribes of Thessaly under himself as 
captain-general. He was one of the ablest men whom we 
have yet met in Greek history, '' stout of limb and robust of 
body," a prodigious toiler ; like Napoleon he worked while 
others ate and slept, making night of equal service with the 
day, and applying his resourceful mind to building up a 
great political and military power. It was his intention 
to make himself lord of Hellas and then conquer Persia. 
As a step towards his object he prepared to display his 
wealth and strength to the eyes of Greece at the Pythian 
games ; he would attend with an army and bring an offer- 
ing to the god which would astonish his contemporaries, — 
a thousand beeves and ten thousand sheep, goats, and swine. 
Perhaps he planned to preside at the games and persuade 
the Amphictyonic Council to recognize him as captain of 
the forces of Hellas in a national war against Persia. As he 
was reviewing his troops before setting out to Delphi, seven 
young men ran to him disputing hotly, as it seemed, about 
some matter which they wanted him to settle ; but while he 
was listening to the case, they stabbed him with their dag- 
gers, gashing his throat and goring his body. The guard, 
coming to the rescue, killed two of the assassins ; the others 
escaped and were honored for the deed by the Hellenic 
cities in which they took refuge. His successors were 
unable to maintain their authority ; and Thessaly, weakened 
by disunion and anarchy, fell under the influence first of 
Thebes, and afterwards of Macedon. It was the mission of 
the latter country to weld eastern Hellas into a nation. 

Macedon is the basin of a river system, whose waters after 
running in their upper course through broad plains, sepa- 
rated by high mountains, flow together in three parallel 
streams to the sea. It is somewhat like a hand with radi- 



Philip 299 

ating fingers reaching from the coast into the- continent. 
The country was made up accordingly of two distinct 
regions : the Highland, including the mountains and plains 
of the interior ; and the Lowland, nearer to the sea. 

Dense forest nearly covered the Highland, even as late as The Mace- 
the fourth century B.C. The sparse population lived in ^°"'^"^- 
hovels, dressed in skins, and fed their few sheep on the Arrian, 
mountain sides, for which they had to fight with ill-success ^"' ^' 
against their neighbors. Their habits were warlike : the Arist. PoU- 
youth could not sit at table with the men till he had ''^'^' ^^'' ^' ^^* 
killed a wild boar, and he who had slain no foe must wear a 
rope about his body as a sign that he was not yet free. 
They ate from wooden dishes ; they fought with the rudest 
weapons ; poverty and exposure were toughening them into 
excellent material for soldiers. 

In each separate valley dwelt a tribe under the rule of Philip. 
king and nobles, as it had been in the Greece of Homer's P. 13 ff. 
day. The Macedonians were indeed Greeks who had not 
yet emerged from barbarism. The Lowlanders, however, 
through contact with the Hellenic colonies along their 
coast, were making rapid progress in culture. Their King 
Amyntas, by adopting the military organization and the 
armor of the civilized Greeks, compelled the Highlanders 
to acknowledge him as their king. Two years after the 
battle of Leuctra, Amyntas died, leaving three sons, — Alex- P. 273. 
ander, Perdiccas, and Philip. Alexander, who succeeded 
to the throne, was murdered by his mother ; Pelopidas 
soon afterwards interfered in Macedon, placed a regent 
over the young King Perdiccas, and carried away Philip, 
then a youth of fifteen, as hostage. This visit of Philip 
to Thebes was in its effect like that of Peter the Great 
to Holland and England. Thebes was then at the height 
of her glory : her generals and her army were the best in 



300 TJie Rise of Mace don 

the world ; her schools, streets, market-place, and assembly 
thronged with busy life ; her arsenals sounded continually 
with preparations for war. The royal youth came a half- 
barbarian, with a voracious appetite for learning everything 
which would be useful to his country ; he returned a civil- 
ized Greek, with an ambition to be the maker of a nation. 
His ambi- Soon afterwards Perdiccas fell, sword in hand, fighting 

tious policy, against the rebellious Highlanders, who were aided by the 
359 B.C. Illyrians ; and Philip mounted the throne, beset on all 

sides with difficulties and dangers. 

Within the next two years he had proved his right to 
rule by overcoming his domestic foes, defeating his hostile 
neighbors, and seating himself firmly in power : it became 
evident at once that the king of Macedon, instead of stand- 
ing on the defensive, as his forefathers had done, intended 
to enlarge his kingdom by subduing the surrounding states. 
First he wished to annex the coast cities that he might 
have free access to the sea. Some of these cities were 
allies of Athens, the great power of the ^gean, and 
p. 266ff. others belonged to the Chalcidic Federation, restored after 
its overthrow by the Peloponnesians. He lured the Chal- 
cidians into alliance, till, by outwitting the Athenians, he 
had robbed them of their cities on his coast, and had 
taken Amphipolis, the most flourishing commercial city in 
the neighborhood. Though in these proceedings he prac- 
tised the grossest deception, it must be said in his favor 
that he treated his new subjects with the utmost fairness, 
granting them more municipal rights than the native Mace- 
donians enjoyed. 
War between The Athenians in anger broke the peace with him in 
Athens and ^-- ^^^^^ l^^^ could effect nothing because they were en- 

Philip, 357- 

346 B.C. gaged at the same time in a Social War, — that is, a war with 

some of their aUies who had revolted. Athens indeed showed 




< 
o 



Pi 



Philip and Phocis 301 

great weakness through this period in all her dealings with 
other states, as so many of her citizens were opposed to 
an aggressive foreign policy. She failed in the Social War, The Social 
and ended it by granting independence to the seceding ^^^' ^57- 
states, Chios, Cos, Rhodes, and Byzantium. Other alhes 
deserted till only Euboea and a few small islands were 
left, whose war contributions amounted to no more than Holm, iii, 
forty-five talents a year. Philip, on the other hand, ac- ^^' ^^' 
quired enormous revenues by seizing Mount Pangseus and 
working its gold mines. These yielded him a thousand 
talents a year. With the money from this source he was 
enabled to keep up a standing army, build a fleet from 
the timber of the forests about Pangseus, and purchase 
helpers in nearly every city of Greece. Though ready to 
corrupt and to deceive enemies and neutrals, he was 
faithful to his friends. 

Philip next began a struggle with Phocis for the posses- The Sacred 
sion of Thessaly. The Phocians were one of the fresh ^^' '^^^~ 

■' 346 B.C. 

races of Greece, whose martial strength and ardor had not 

yet been softened by commerce and city life. As they Curtius, v, 

refused to submit to Thebes, the latter persuaded the P' ^^ ^' • 

' ^ Hohn, III, 

Amphictyonic Council to declare a sacred war upon them ch.xvi. 
on a fictitious charge of impiety towards Apollo. To pay 
the expenses of the war, the Phocian commanders bor- 
rowed large sums of money from the Delphic treasury, a P. loi. 
perfectly honorable transaction, as Delphi was a Phocian 
city and the war was in self-defence ; yet the enemies of 
the Httle state cried out hypocritically against this still 
more impious crime against the god. Onomarchus, who 
by his ability had risen to the chief command in Phocis, 
brought together by means of this money a great army 
of mercenaries, with which he overran Locris, Doris, and 353 ^^^' 
Boeotia, seized the pass of Thermopylae, defeated Philip 



302 



The Rise of Mace don 



352 B.C. 



Philip and 
Chalcidice. 



Curtius, V, 
p. 284 ff.; 
Holm, III, 
ch. xvii. 

352-349 B.C. 



twice in Thessaly, and drove him back to Macedon. For 
a time it seemed that the Phocians were to become the 
leading state in Hellas ; but as their power depended 
chiefly on mercenaries, the exhaustion of the Delphic 
treasury would soon bring it to an end. Athens and Lace- 
daemon gave Phocis little more than their moral support 
against Thebes, while the unfortunate campaign of Phihp 
merely spurred him to greater exertions. In the following 
year he reappeared with an army in Thessaly, defeated 
Onomarchus, and drove the Phocians behind Thermopylae. 
Their commander was killed by his own men in the flight, 
and Philip in an outburst of barbarism ordered the body 
to be nailed to a cross. Only the timely arrival of an 
Athenian force prevented the victorious king from passing 
through Thermopylae into central Greece. However, all 
Thessaly was now his, and immediately afterwards he con- 
quered Thrace nearly to the Hellespont. 

The Chalcidians, who up to this time had been in aUiance 
with Phihp, and who had looked upon him in the begin- 
ning as an insignificant prince, now became alarmed at 
the marvellous growth of his power. Suddenly discovering 
that they were in league with a most dangerous enemy 
against a state which had common interests with their own, 
they made peace with Athens in violation of their agree- 
ment with Philip. The crafty king let three years shp 
quietly by, during which he won over to himself by threats 
and bribes a considerable • party in every Chalcidic town ; 
then, when fully prepared for war, he ordered Olynthus to 
give up his step-brother, who had taken refuge from him 
in that city. As Greeks considered it a religious duty to 
harbor exiles, and an act of high-handed presumption to 
demand their surrender, Olynthus refused, and sent at the 
same time an appeal to Athens for help. Among the 



Demosthenes 



303 



tions. 



speakers in the Athenian assembly when this subject came 
up for consideration was the man who was to be known 
through future ages as the antagonist of Phihp, — Demos- 
thenes, the most eminent orator the world has known. 

Demosthenes was only seven years old when his father, Demos- 

tliGncs 
a wealthy Athenian manufacturer, died, and the guardians so 

mismanaged the estate that little of it was left when he be- mosthenes • 
came a man. Young Demosthenes was a slender, sallow Demos- 
boy, who, instead of joining with comrades in the sports \.^^^^" ^' 
of the gymnasium, 
remained at home 
with his m other, 
nursing his wrath 
against the unfaith- 
ful guardians till it 
became the ruling 
passion of his youth. 
To prepare himself 
for prosecuting 
them he took train- 
ing under Isaeus, a 
master of legal ora- 
tory who was espe- 
cially successful in 
cases of inheritance. 
If is said, too, that 
even in youth he re- 
solved to become a 
statesman; but his 
voice was defective, his body weak and awkward, his habits 
unsocial, — his whole nature unfitted for such a calHng. 
Strength of soul, however, made up for personal disadvantages. 
He trained his voice and delivery under a successful actor ; His oratory. 




Demosthenes 

(Capitoline Museum, Rome.) 



304 



The Rise of Mace don 



p. 289 f. 
p. 226 f. 



Pp. i59ff, 
288 f. 



His opposi- 
tion to 
Macedon. 



First Philip- 
pic, 351 B.C. 

Three Olyii- 
thiac Ora- 
tions, 
349-348 B.C. 



he studied Isocrates, the great master of prose ; he steeped his 
mind in Thucydides, from whom he formed an ideal of great- 
ness for his state; he steeled his will and so exercised his 
mental muscles that they became capable of the highest and 
most prolonged tension. In time he developed the most 
varied character : we find in his oratory the grand ideas and 
the terrific force of an ^schylus, the simplicity of a Lysias, 
the grace and flexibility of the most accomplished rhetorician, 
and the rehgious fervor of a prophet. In a word, Demos- 
thenes became, with the possible exception of Plato, the 
greatest master of Greek prose. Success in his prosecution 
of the guardians led him to speech-writing as a profes- 
sion, from which he gradually made his way into public 
hfe. 

He was the first to foresee the danger to Hellenic free- 
dom from Philip, and lost no time or zeal in warning Athens 
to meet it while still far off. He had already entered upon 
his lifelong opposition to Macedon in an oration styled his 
First Philippic, and now on the arrival of envoys from Olyn- 
thus he urged the Athenians to embrace this heaven-sent 
opportunity of alliance with Philip's new foe. Give prompt 
and vigorous assistance, use your surplus revenues for war 
rather than festivals ; do not be content with sending mer- 
cenaries, but take the field yourselves against Philip, and 
you will certainly defeat him, for his strength is derived 
from your weak policy, his power is based on injustice, and 
all his subjects will revolt, if only you give them a little 
encouragement and support. Such were the sentiments of 
his Olynthiac Orations. He tried to inspire his country- 
men with the life and ambition of their fathers, who had 
beaten down Persia and had founded an empire ; yet his 
words had little effect, as he was still a young man and 
almost unknown. The Athenians made the aUiance, but 



Philip and the Army 305 

would not exert themselves to give the needed help ; so 
that Phihp before the end of the following year had taken 
Olynthus and the thirty other cities of the federation. Some Fall of Chai- 
surrendered, others were betrayed into his hands. He then ^^dice, 

348 B.C. 

destroyed all the Chalcidic cities and enslaved the entire 

population. Hellas was indeed punished for the disunion 

of her states, but this does not justify Philip. The act was character 

unnecessarily severe ; the cruelty and violence of all the °^ Philip- 

Greek tyrants combined scarcely equalled in enormity this 

one deed of the Macedonian king. There could now be no 

doubt that Philip was dangerous. He ruled supreme in 

Macedon, Thessaly, Chalcidice, and in the greater part of 

Thrace ; he had his hirelings among the leading men of 

the Hellenic cities. Phihp was a self-made man. Like 

Jason of Pherae, he was an incessant toiler who spared not 

his own person, but " in his struggle for power and em- Demosth. De 

pire had an eye cut out, his collar-bone fractured, a hand ^^^^'^'^' °7. 

and leg mutilated, and was willing to sacrifice any part 

of his body which fortune chose to take, provided he could 

live with the remainder in honor and glory." The body 

served a masterful intellect ; few men have equalled him 

in quickness of thought and in soundness of judgment. 

His influence, unlike that of Jason, lived after him through 

the institutions which he created. 

His greatest institution was the Macedonian army. The The Mace- 
rough Highland huntsmen and the peasants of the Plain, Ionian army, 
organized in local regiments, composed his phalanx. Learn- p. ^g ff. 
ing a lesson from Iphicrates, he gave them hghter defen- 
sive armor than that of the Greek hoplite and increased the P. 264 f. 
length of their spear. Thus they could move more rapidly, 
and in conflict with any enemy their lances were first to 
draw blood. The nobles served in the cavalry as " com- 
panions " of the king; the light-armed troops composed 



3o6 



TJie Rise of Mace don 



The making 
of a nation. 



Pp. 21, 267. 



Peace of 
Philocrates, 
346 B.C. 



Grote, xi, 
p. 390 ff. ; 
Holm, III, 
ch. xvii. 



his guard ; the sons of nobles were royal pages, associating 
with the king and protecting his person. Gradually, as 
military pride, the glory of success, and most of all the 
magnetism of a great commander welded this mass of men 
into an organic whole, Philip, and after him Alexander, pro- 
ceeded to wipe out distinctions of locality and of social rank, 
making every man's place depend upon his own merit and 
the favor of the general. Thus the military organization 
not only civilized the Macedonians by subjecting them to 
discipline, but it also destroyed their clannishness and made 
of them one nation with common interests, sentiments, and 
hopes. And Phihp's country was not so exclusive as the 
Hellenic cities had always been; rather, like Rome, it 
readily admitted strangers to citizenship and in this way 
showed a capacity for indefinite growth in population and in 
area. Macedon was already far larger than any other Greek 
state ; its army was better organized ; its troops were supe- 
rior ; its king possessed a genius for war and for diplomacy, 
— hence it was that Philip easily gained the supremacy 
over Greece. 

Athens, unable to stir Hellas to a national war against 
PhiHp, offered him peace. Philocrates moved the resolution 
and Demosthenes and his friends supported it. Philip had 
always been willing to treat with the Athenians, for he had 
not the means of opposing them on the sea and could hardly 
expect to reduce their strong fortifications by siege ; besides 
this, why should he try to destroy a power which he hoped 
to win over to his aUiance ? He would need their navy as 
well as their moral support in the war with Persia which he 
was already planning. The treaty signed in 346 b.c. in- 
cluded the alhes of both parties with the exception of the 
Phocians, whom Philip reserved for punishment. " The 
pious task of vindicating Apollo " was, however, mere hypoc- 



Philip and DemostJienes 307 

risy : Philip really wished to gain a foothold in central The fate of 
Greece and at the same time to pose as a champion of the P"°^^^- 
prophetic god. Passing through Thermopylae a few days 
after signing the treaty, as agent of the Amphictyonic Coun- 
cil he destroyed the twenty-two cities of Phocis and scat- 
tered the inhabitants in villages. The council decreed that 
the Phocians should repay by annual instalments the ten 
thousand talents of which they had robbed Apollo's treasury. 
Philip now held a place of great influence in Greece. " The 
god who sat on the navel of Hellas acknowledged his new Philip, the 
champion through the mouth of his Prophetess. The an- g^^^^^^^ °f 

•^ ^ ^ the Hellenes. 

cient and venerated union of the Amphictyons elected him 
by acclamation to the empty seat of the Phocians, receiving 
him thus into the innermost circle of the Hellenes. And in Hogarth, 
the character of the greatest Hellene of them all he sat in ^' ^'^' 
the Pythian chair of presidency that autumn, and gave the 
bay-leaf crowns to the victors at the games. With the noise 
of him all Greece was filled, even as the brain of that half- 
witted Arcadian, who, arrested at Delphi, cried that he was 
running and would run still, until he came to a people that , 
knew not Philip." 

Throughout the years of peace which followed, Philip was Struggle be- 
busily engaged in winning friends among the Greeks ; he ^^^^" '' ^^ 
placed his brother-in-law as vassal on the throne of Epeirus, thenes, 343- 
aUied himself with ^tolia, and labored to bring all Hellas 338 b.c. 
under his will by creating in each city a party devoted to 
himself. In all his movements, however, he met with stren- 
uous opposition from Demosthenes, now the leading states- 
man of his city. Under his guidance Athens, already the rec- Curtius, v, 
ognized intellectual mistress of Hellas, renouncing all claims P' ^33 • ; 

° . . Holm, HI, 

to political supremacy, contented herself with a leadership ch. xviii. 

over voluntary allies, for her glory but for their welfare. The 

great orator was elevating his state to a higher moral plane 



308 



The Rise of Mace don 



Battle of 
Chaeroneia, 
338 B.C. 



than had yet been reached by any other Hellenic city : 
"Suppose that you have one of the gods as surety that 
Philip will leave you untouched, in case you hold your hands 
and abandon everything; in the name of all the powers 
above, it is a shame for you and your city to sacrifice in 
indolent stolidity the whole number of the other Greeks ; 
and I for my part would rather be a dead man than give 
such advice." On such principles Demosthenes created an 
Hellenic league to repel Philip from Greece. The majority of 
states in Peloponnese and several in central Greece joined it. 
Philip again marched through Thermopylae to put an end 
to another sacred war which his agents had kindled for 




Battlefield of Cn.iiRONEiA 



Holm. Ill, 
chs. xviii-xix ; 
Hogarth, 
p. 119 ff. 



him in central Greece, and occupied Elateia near the Boeo- 
tian frontier. As this movement threatened both Thebes 
and Athens, Thebes was induced to enter the Hellenic 
League, whose forces now met PhiHp at Chaeroneia in Boeo- 



The Battle of CJiceroueia 309 

tia, but were overwhelmingly defeated. In this battle two 
opposing principles came into conflict : a loose federal 
union, which allowed its members a large degree of local 
freedom, strove to maintain itself against a compact state 
under a monarch. The triumph of the monarchy has 
helped to determine the course of the world's history to the 
present day : the great states of modern times owe their 
existence in part to the impetus given to centralization by 
the victory of Philip at Chseroneia. 

Sources 

Demosthenes, Orations; ^schines, Orations ; Plutarch, Demosthe- Reading. 
nes ; Diodorus, xvi. 

Modern Authorities 

Holm, History of Greece, III, chs. xiv-xviii ; Oman, History of Greece, 
chs. xli-xliii; Allcroft, Decline of Hellas, chs. iii-vii; Curteis, Rise of 
the Macedonian Empire, chs. i-vii; Hogarth, Philip and Alexander ; 
Timayenis, History of Greece, II, pt. viii; Curtius, History of Greece, 
V, bk. vii; Grote, History of Greece, XI, chs. Ixxxvi-xc. 



CHAPTER XVI 



Hellenic 
League 
under Mace- 
don, 338 B.C. 

Holm, HI, 
p. 283 f. 



Assassina- 
tion of Philip, 
336 B.C. 



ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE AND TPIE SPREAD OF HELLENIC 
CIVILIZATION OVER THE EAST (338-146 B.C.) 

With the battle of Chaeroneia the history of Greece 
merges in that of Macedon. According to the wishes of 
PhiHp, the Greek cities retained their constitutions but 
committed to him as their representative all their inter- 
state and foreign relations, including the power to declare 
war and make peace. They also acknowledged him their 
captain-general in war. A congress of Greek states meeting 
at Corinth deliberated on the common affairs of Greece, 
while the Amphictyonic Council continued as the supreme 
court of the country. Sparta alone stood aloof from these 
proceedings and would have nothing to do with Macedon. 
The other states agreed to furnish troops for Philip's war 
against Persia. Preparations for this enterprise went on 
actively till, in 336 B.C., the army was ready to move into 
Asia, when Philip was delayed by troubles in his own house. 
His wife, Olympias, the mother of his son Alexander, was 
an Epeirot princess, a wild, fierce woman, who for rehgious 
worship indulged in fantastic mysteries closely akin to witch- 
craft. Sent home to her kinsmen and supplanted by a 
younger wife, she began in jealous rage to plot against her 
lord. Between Philip and Alexander an angry brawl arose ; 
then came a reconciliation celebrated with splendid feasts 
and games. In the midst of the rejoicing, a certain Pau- 
sanias, perhaps incited by the cast-off queen, stabbed Philip 
to death as he was entering the theatre. Alexander, who 

310 



Accession of Alexander 311 

succeeded to the kingdom at the age of twenty, found the 
great work of his father rapidly crumbling, — the Macedo- 
nians disaffected, barbarous tribes threatening invasion, and 
Greece rebellious. 

He was at this time a smooth-faced, ruddy-cheeked youth, Alexander 
with eyes and face full of animation and wdth the form of * ^ '^^^' 
an Olympic runner. But he preferred hunting to athletics, 
and showed his boldness and skill by taming the fiery horse 
Bucephalus. There was in him the same eagerness for 
knowledge as for exercise ; and among his many tutors was ^ 

Aristotle, the most learned of all the Greeks. Alexander, Plutarch, 
believing from his boyhood that nothinsf was too great for ^^^^^^^^er ; 
him to accomplish, tried to master every branch of knowl- as is of 
edge, theoretical and practical, from literature to political Alexander. 
and moral science, metaphysics, and even medicine. He 
was passionately fond of the Iliad, as he found reflected in 
it the character of his Macedonian countrymen and dis- 
covered in the hero Achilles his own ideal and image. The P. 10. 
young king was an impetuous yet manly spirit, sincere in 
an age of deceit, incessantly active in the midst of a gen- 
eration of drones. Rejecting on his accession the advice 
of those who counselled slow deliberation in meeting the 
difficulties which beset him, with a few masterful strokes he 
reduced the kingdom of his father to order. In stamping 
out the rebellion in Greece, Alexander took Thebes by 
storm, destroyed the entire city excepting the temples and 
the home of Pindar, and sold the inhabitants into slavery; P. gif. 
but of this severity he afterwards repented and tried to 
undo the mischief. The rest of Greece retained the rights 
which his father had granted, and was not even required to 
furnish troops for the war with Persia in which he was about 
to engage. 

In the spring of 334 B.C., Alexander crossed the Helles- 



312 



Alexander's Empire 



Invasion of 
Asia. 



Granicus, 
334 B.C. 
Airian, i, 
12-16. 



Battle of 

Issus, 
333 B.C. 
Arrian, ii, 
6-12. 



pont with forty thousand troops, and began the invasion of 
the Persian empire, for which the best men of Greece had 
long been yearning. He aspired to draw the hearts of his 
people to himself as the hero who would punish the Persians 
for desolating his country and burning its temples. The 
enemy first offered resistance on the Granicus River in 
Troyland ; without hesitation Alexander crossed the stream 
under a storm of darts, and carried the enemy's position by 
a bold dash. Half of the force which opposed him there 
consisted of Greeks who were serving the Asiatic king for 
pay. When, too, it became certain that the war-ships of 
Hellas would cooperate with those of Darius, Alexander 
determined to sweep the coast of the empire from Ephesus 
to the mouths of the Nile, that hostile fleets might find no 
landing-place in his rear j he must wage a naval war with his 
land troops. Fortresses must be stormed on the way, garri- 
sons stationed in walled towns, and communications kept 
open with Macedon. As the Greek cities one by one fell 
into his power, he gave them democratic governments, but 
denied them the dearly-beloved privilege of killing and ban- 
ishing oligarchs. Greece had never before seen a poHcy 
at once so vigorous and so humane. 

At Issus in Cilicia he met King Darius in command of a 
vast host, yet posted in a narrow valley where numbers did 
not count. Though outnumbered perhaps twenty to one, 
by a skilful attack he routed the unwieldy mass, and sent 
the royal coward into headlong flight. Alexander always 
exposed himself recklessly in battle, and on this occasion 
was wounded by a sword-thrust in the thigh. A great 
quantity of booty, and even the mother, wife, and children 
of the king, fell into his hands. These persons he treated 
kindly, but he refused to negotiate with Darius for peace : 
" For the future when you wish anything of me, send to me 



Invasion of Asia 313 

not as your equal, but as the lord of all Asia ; and if you dis- 
pute my right to the kingdom, stay and fight another battle 
for it instead of running away." 

Soon after this battle he took captive some ambassadors Alexander 
who had come up from Greece to form with Darius a com- ^"^ *^^ 

Greeks. 

mon plan of resistance to the Macedonians. Instead of 
punishing the envoys for what he might legally have re- 
garded as treason, he found excuses for them, one by one, 
and let them go. It was a great misfortune for the Greeks 
that they could not understand Alexander's character and 
motives ; for, had they given him their support and sym- 
pathy> had they claimed him as their own, they might have 
imposed a wholesome check upon his ambition, and have 
reaped all the profit of his success. But the fault was not 
wholly with the Greeks ; the statesman who in the pursuit 
of lofty ideals makes no attempt to elevate the people to 
his own level of intelligence certainly lacks wisdom. So it 
was with Alexander. For a time he tried to win the Greeks 
by acts of kindness to men and states ; we shall see how he p. 317 f. 
aHenated them by his own unreasonableness. 

From Issus Alexander proceeded to Tyre. The capture siege of 
of this city by siege and storm was the most brilliant of all ^y^^- 33-2 ^-c. 

Arri3.Ti ii 

his military exploits. Though harassed by fire-ships on his 15-24. ' 
flanks and by sorties from the harbors, he succeeded in 
building a mole from the mainland to the isle on which the 
city stood. During the siege he collected a fleet of Greek 
and Phoenician vessels, and on the completion of the mole 
he made the attack at once by land and sea. Many thou- 
sand Tyrians were slain in the storming of their city, and 
thousands of captives were sold into slavery. The great 
emporium of the East was left a heap of ruins. Darius could 
no longer look for help from the Phoenician navy, or from 
cooperation with the Greeks. He now offered still more 



314 



Alexander s Einpire 



Alexandria. 
Arrian, iii, 
1-5- 



P. 320 ff. 

The oracle 
of Ammon. 



Battle of 
Arbela, 

331 B.C. 



Arrian, iii, 
7-15; Plut. 
Alexander, 



favorable terms of peace, — Alexander should have all the 
country west of the Euphrates, and should become the son- 
m-law and ally of the kmg. "Were I Alexander," said 
Parmenion, the ablest Macedonian general, " I should accept 
the offer." " And so should I, if I were Parmenion," 
Alexander replied, and sent word to Darius that he would 
not content himself with the half, since the whole was 
already his, and that if he chose to marry his adversary's 
daughter, he would do so without asking the father's con- 
sent. Darius then began fresh preparations for war, and 
Alexander marched on to Egypt, which yielded to him 
without resistance. Near one of the mouths of the Nile he 
founded Alexandria to take the place of Tyre, and with its 
trade-routes to bind fast his new dominions to the throne of 
his fathers. It grew to be the greatest commercial city 
of the eastern Mediterranean ; in the following century it 
became famous for its library and its learning ; Greeks, Jews, 
and Egyptians, minghng in social life and in study, produced 
in it a type of culture unique in history. 

Before departing from Egypt Alexander paid a visit to 
the oracle of the god Ammon in an oasis of the Libyan 
desert, and received assurance from the deity who sat in 
this vast solitude that he, the conqueror of nations, was in 
reality a son of Zeus. So at least it was rumored ; but he 
kept the secret, and led his army from the Nile country 
to the heart of the Persian empire. Some sixty miles from 
Arbela, north of Babylon, he again met the enemy. On 
this occasion Darius had chosen a favorable position, a 
broad plain in which his force of a miUion men found 
ample room for movement. The two armies halted in 
view of each other. While Alexander's troops slept the 
night through, Darius, keeping his men under arms, re- 
viewed them by torchlight. Parmenion, beholding all the 



TJie Battle of Arbela 



315 



plain aglow with the lights and fires of the Asiatics, and 
hearing the uncertain and confused sound of voices from 
their camp like the distant roar of the vast ocean, was 
amazed at the multitude of the foe, and, hastening to the 
tent of Alexander, besought him to make a night attack that 
darkness might hide them from the enemy. " I will not 
steal a victory ! " the young king rephed. He knew Darius 
would lose all hope of 
resistance only when 
conquered by force of 
arms in a straightfor- 
ward battle. It was a 
fierce struggle which 
took place on the fol- 
lowing day ; but the 
steady advance of the 
bristling phalanx and 
the furious charge of 
the Macedonian cav- 
alry under the lead of 
their king won the 
day over the unorgan- 
ized, spiritless mass of 
Orientals. Many a 
Persian grandee's 
womanly face was 
marred on that day 

by the lance-points of Alexander's " companions." The 
long struggle between two continents which began with the 
earliest Persian attacks on Greece was decided in favor of 
Europe by the intelligent and robust manliness of the 
Westerners ; the clash of arms at Marathon found an echo 
at Arbela. 




Alexander in Battle 

(From the "Sarcophagus of Alexander" at 
Constantinople.) 



3i6 



Alexander' s Empire 



Alexander 
succeeds 
Darius, 
330 B.C. 



Further con- 
quests and 
explorations, 
330-325 B.C. 
Arrian, iii, 
i6-vi, 21. 



325 B.C. 
Arrian, vi, 
22-27. 



Plans for fur- 
ther con- 
quest, 
323 B.C. 



Darius fled northward, but was murdered by an attendant 
on the way. Alexander as his successor was master of the 
empire. The pacification of the great country, the exten- 
sion of boundaries, the organization and administration, 
were matters of detail. Alexander's victorious marches 
into the remote northerly countries of Bactria and Sogdiana 
and eastward to the Hyphasis in India are interesting both 
as brilliant military achievements and as explorations of 
regions hitherto unknown to the Greeks. Science made 
enormous gains, for minute records of observations were 
kept, and materials were everywhere collected for classifica- 
tion by Aristotle and his school. The return from India 
through the Gedrosian desert was a marvellous feat of 
endurance. The men marched for sixty days, hungry and 
thirsty, through burning sands and under a lurid sky to 
gratify the ambition of their leader. Three-fourths of the 
army perished on the way ; but Alexander was now lord of 
Asia, and to such a despot human life is cheap. His 
admiral, Nearchus, who at the same time was voyaging from 
the mouth of the Indus to the Persian Gulf, opened a water- 
route to India and robbed the ocean of its supernatural 
terrors. 

Immediately after his return to Babylon, Alexander be- 
gan to settle the aftairs of his empire, which reached from 
the western limits of Greece to the Hyphasis River in 
India, and from the Jaxartes River to Ethiopia, — the 
greatest extent of country yet united under one govern- 
ment. He busied himself, too, with recruiting and reor- 
ganizing the army and with building an immense fleet ; 
for he was planning the conquest of Arabia, Africa, and 
western Europe. When ready to set out from Babylon 
on this expedition, he suddenly fell sick of a fever caused 
probably by excessive drinking. As he grew rapidly worse, 



Achievemeiits and Character 317 

the soldiers forced their way in to see their beloved com- Death, 
mander once more, and the whole army passed in single ^^-^ ^'^* 
file by his bed. He was no longer able to speak, but his 
eyes and uplifted hand expressed his silent farewell. 

He was in his thirty-third year when he died, but the His achieve- 
work which he accomplished in his short career fills a larger "^^'^^^• 
space in the world's history perhaps than that of any other 
human being. His mission was to make Hellenic civiliza- 
tion the common property of mankind. This he accom- 
pHshed chiefly by means of his colonies. In every part of 
his empire he planted cities, more than seventy in all, each 
with a Greek nucleus, beginning usually with the worn-out 
soldiers of his army. These settlements held the empire in 
allegiance to their king, bound the several parts of it together 
by the ties of commerce, and spread Greek culture among 
the natives. He improved greatly the administration of the 
empire. The satrap had been a despot after the pattern of 
the king whom he served, uniting in himself all military, 
financial, and judicial authority ; but Alexander in organiz- 
ing a province assigned each of these functions to a distinct 
officer, so that the work of government could be done better 
than before, and there was far less opportunity for the abuse 
of power. Though the empire was broken after his death, 
his colonization and administration continued till the frag- 
ments of the empire with the policy of the founder came 
into the possession of Rome. 

Alexander's mind had expanded rapidly with the progress His charac- 
of his conquests. First king of Macedon, next captain- ^^'' 
general of Hellas, then emperor of Persia, he aspired finally 
to be lord of the whole earth, to unite Europe, Asia, and 
Africa into an organic unit, to blend the nationahties so 
completely that all men would become brothers in one great 
family. But the dizzy height of power to which he had 



3i8 



A lexander ' s Empire 



The succes- 
sion. 



The battle 
of Ipsus, 

301 B.C. 



climbed disturbed his mental poise ; in an outburst of pas- 
sion he murdered his dearest friend ; his lust for worship 
grew upon him till he bade the manly Macedonians grovel 
before him like servile Asiatics, and sent an order to the 
Greeks to recognize him as a god. Although his errors 
were many, they were soon forgotten, while the good he did 
passed into history. 

When Alexander died the authority passed to his gener- 
als, trained tacticians indeed like Napoleon's marshals, yet 
none of them qualified to fill the place of the master. Only 
the genius which had created this great empire out of 
diverse nationalities would have been able to organize it 
and to make it permanent. As there were several claim- 
ants for the throne, — among them an imbecile and an 
infant, the son of xAlexander, — and as the generals, too, 
began to fight among themselves for the chief place, the 
^mpire naturally fell to pieces. 

Perdiccas, to whom Alexander in the last moment had 
given his signet-ring to mark him as successor, ruled for a 
time as guardian of the infant heir; but when finally he was 
killed by his own troops, Antigonus, the ablest of Alex- 
ander's lieutenants, made himself master of Asia, and 
claimed sovereignty over the whole empire. The con- 
queror at the point of death had prophesied that a great 
funeral contest would be held over his body. The celebra- 
tion of his burial rites now began in dreadful earnest, as the 
larger part of the civilized world became involved in war. 
Four other generals, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and 
Cassander, combined against Antigonus. Lysimachus and 
Seleucus with their armies defeated their mighty rival at 
Ipsus in Phrygia in 301 B.C. This was one of the most 
important battles of ancient times, as it determined the 
history of the empire till it fell under the power of Rome. 



successors of Alexander 319 

The victors, no longer mere generals but kings, divided the Division of 
empire among themselves : Seleucus received Asia from *^ empire. 
Phrygia to India ; western Asia Minor and Thrace fell to 
Lysimachus. Ptolemy, who after the death of Alexander 
had gone as satrap to Egypt, retained that country as his 
kingdom ; and Cassander, already governor of Macedon, 
was now recognized as sovereign. In this way Alexander's 
empire broke up into four kingdoms. Somewhat later 
Lysimachus was slain and his realm divided. While most 
of his Asiatic possessions were annexed to the dominion of 
Seleucus, barbarous tribes, including many Gauls, seized the 
interior of Thrace and threatened the Greek cities along the 
coast. 

We shall now indicate briefly the character and the History of the 
historical importance of the three remaining kingdoms. kingdoms. 

Among the successors of Alexander the ablest adminis- The empire 

trator was Seleucus. Following the policy of his master, ° ! ^^ . , 

° ^ -^ _ Seleucidae. 

he planted as many as seventy-five colonies in his realm. 
Among these was Seleucia on the Tigris, said to have con- 
tained six hundred thousand inhabitants and to have ri- 
valled Babylon in splendor. As a capital for his kingdom 
he founded Antioch in Syria not far from the sea, — 
a city which was to become notable in early Christian 
history. '' The new towns were all built on a large and Mahaffy, 

comfortable model : they were well paved : they had ample '^'y^ ^-^^ 
' ^ ^ ' J i and Thought, 

arrangements for Hghting by night and for a good water- p. 307. 
supply ; they had police arrangements, and good thorough- 
fares secured to them by land and water. These were in 
themselves privileges enough to tempt all the surrounding 
peasants, all the people who lived in old-fashioned incom- 
modious villages, to settle in a fresh home." This is 
what the Greeks under the patronage of Seleucus were 
doing for Asia. Colonists from every part of Greece 



320 



Alexander' s Empire 



Egypt under 
the Ptole- 
mies. 



The 
Museum. 



Greeks and 
Jews. 



brought their industry and enterprise to every part of 
the Seleucid empire ; they furnished the intelligence and 
the skill by which the whole commercial business as well 
as the civil service of the empire was conducted. The 
new towns were Hellenic in language, in civihzation, and 
in their free local institutions. Through them Seleucus 
and his descendants, the Seleucidae, continued Alexander's 
work of Hellenizing the East, making the people in the 
great country over which they ruled one in language, in 
culture, and in sympathy, and preparing the way for the 
peaceful and rapid spread of Christianity. As the pro- 
moters of civilization, the Seleucidse were the most worthy 
among the successors of Alexander. 

The rule of Ptolemy and his successors, the Ptolemies, 
though an absolute monarchy, was mild ; the rulers con- 
sulted the interests of the people that their own revenues 
might be large and their power secure. Under them 
Alexandria became a great commercial city and a famous 
seat of culture. The chief institution of learning was the 
Museum, founded by the first Ptolemy and greatly enlarged 
by his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was a collection of 
buildings on a piece of ground sacred to the Muses, — 
hence the name. The institution was thoroughly equipped 
with observatories, zoological gardens, and herbaria. The 
library, containing more than five hundred thousand manu- 
scripts, was the largest in ancient times. Learned men 
were attracted to the Museum by the great facilities for 
investigation and by the liberality of the government in 
providing them with a living during their residence there. 
Among the buildings were dwellings for the scholars and a 
dining-hall in which all ate together at public expense. 

The scholars of the Museum occupied themselves with 
editing and explaining Homer and other ancient poets, with 



Alexandria 321 

mathematical and astronomical investigations, with comput- 
ing the size of the earth and arranging the events of the 
world's history in chronological order. The Jews, who had 
their quarter in Alexandria, enjoyed equal opportunities with 
the Greeks for trade and for culture. Under the patronage of 
the Ptolemies, learned Jews translated their Bible — the Old 
Testament — into Greek. This version is called the Sep- 
tuagint because of the number of men said to have been 
engaged in the work. The fact that such a translation 
was necessary proves that even the Jews, with all their 
love for the institutions of their fathers, had exchanged 
their own language for that of Hellas. 

It is worth noticing that, though the studies pursued at Alexandrian 
Alexandria were useful, most of them must have been pro- scholarship. 
saic. This peculiar flavor of culture under the Ptolemies 
came chiefly from the prosy situation of Alexandria, which 
contrasted with the natural beauty surrounding the cities of 
Hellas. " The grandeur of solemn mountains, the mystery 
of deep forests, the sweet homeliness of babbling rivers, the 
scent of deep meadows and fragrant shrubs, all this was 
famiUar even to the city people of Hellenic days. For their 
towns were small, and all surrounded by the greatest nat- 
ural beauty. But the din and dust of the new capital, Mahaffy, 
reaching over an extent as great as modern Paris, were ^'^^^^ ^^f^ 

afid Thoitght, 

relieved within by a few town-parks or gymnasia, and with- p^ 165. 
out by fashionable bathing suburbs, with luxuries of life 
replacing the sweets of nature ; and if there was retirement 
and leisure within the university, it was eminently the re- 
tirement among books — the natural home of pedants and 
grammarians. How much this city life weighed upon the 
spirits of men is proved ... by the general dryness and 
dulness of the literature it produced." No wonder then 
that these pedants welcomed among them the poet Theoc- 

Y 



322 



Alexander's Empire 



Macedon 
and Greece, 
323-146 B.C. 



War, 
322 B.C. 



ritus of Syracuse, a composer of pastoral idyls. As the 
Alexandrians saw nothing about them but houses, swamps, 
and water, they felt refreshed by reading poems of coun- 
try life. 

In the period following the death of Alexander, the his- 
tory of Macedon turns first on the efforts of her kings to 
subdue Greece and later on their unsuccessful struggle with 
Rome. On hearing that Alexander was dead the Greeks 
Tiie Lamian revolted; and under the lead of Leosthenes, an Athenian 
general, they defended Thermopylae against Antipater, gov- 
ernor of Macedon. Demosthenes, who had been heavily 
fined on a charge of embezzling public funds, was in exile. 
His sour, wrinkled face must have glowed again like a 
prophet's, now that he hoped once more to see his coun- 
try free. As he travelled through Peloponnese in com- 
pany with Athenian envoys, his eloquence awakened the 
communities to an Hellenic war of hberation. In rec- 
ognition of his loyal spirit and his service in the cause 
of freedom, the Athenians recalled him and appropriated 
fifty talents with which to pay his fine. 

Meantime Leosthenes had pushed Antipater back into 
Thessaly and was besieging him in Lamia, a fortress which 
gave its name to the war. Many states, chiefly the ^to- 
lians, supported the Hellenic cause. There was every pros- 
pect of success, when Leosthenes was killed in an assault 
upon Lamia, and thereafter everything went wrong. Finally 
the Hellenic League was dissolved, and Antipater made 
terms with the separate states. Athens was compelled to 
receive a Macedonian garrison at Munychia, to exclude 
her poorer citizens from the franchise, and to deliver up 
the orators who had opposed Macedon. Among these 
offenders was Demosthenes. He fled at once from Athens, 
and soon afterward took poison that he might not fall alive 



The end of 
Demos- 
thenes, 
322 B.C. 



The Leagues 323 

into the hands of his pursuers. Thus his mighty spirit 
ceased to contend against despotism. On the base of his 
statue his countrymen placed this epitaph : " Had your 
strength equalled your will, Demosthenes, the Macedonian 
War God would never have conquered Greece." 

The Greeks began to feel that in order to preserve their The ^tolian 
Uberties they must unite more closely. The first to put ^^^sue. 
this idea into practice were the ^tolians, the least civil- 
ized of the Greeks, yet among the foremost in poUtical 
capacity. The league of ^toHan tribes which had existed 
from early times enjoyed in the present period a remark- 
ably good form of government. Many communities outside 
of ^tolia — in Peloponnese, in the ^gean, and about 
the Hellespont — willingly joined it. Though others were 
forced to become members, yet all undoubtedly had equal 
rights and enjoyed fair representation in the council and 
the assembly. As the ^tohans had a good representative ^ 
system and in addition a strong magistracy, their state was 
a great improvement on the city-state such as Athens or 
Sparta ; it was a federal union somewhat like that of the 
United States. Had the ^tolians been more civiHzed, 
they would have proved a blessing to Greece ; but their 
appetite for plunder too often led them to side with the 
enemies of their race. 

Some Achaean cities, too, began to form a league modelled The Achaean 
apparently after that of ^tolia. From this small bedn- ^^S^e, 

ri" J ^ ° 280 B.C. 

ning a great federal union was to be built up, chiefly by 
Aratus, a noble of Sicyon. The father of Aratus had been 
killed by the tyrant of his city, and the lad who was one 
day to be the maker of a great state grew up an exile in 
Argos. While still a young man he expelled the tyrant 
from his native city and brought it into the Achaean League. 
" He was a true statesman, high-minded, and more intent Piut. Aratus. 



324 



A lexan der's Emp ii'e 



2 ^5 B.C. 



Piut. op. cit. 



Aratus and 
Cleomenes, 
235 B.C. 



Plut. 
Cleomenes. 



upon the public than his private concerns, a bitter hater 
of tyrants, making the common good the rule and law of 
his friendships and enmities." He advanced so rapidly 
in the esteem of the Achaeans that they elected him gen- 
eral when he was but twenty-seven years of age. Their 
confidence was by no means misplaced. Under his hfe- 
long guidance, the league extended itself till it came to 
include all Peloponnese with the exception of Lacedaemon. 
Nothing was so dear to him as the union he was fostering : 
'•' for he believed that the cities, weak individually, could 
be preserved by nothing else but a mutual assistance under 
the closest bond of the common interest." His jealousy of 
other leaders — his desire to remain sole general — seems 
pardonable when we think of this great state as the work 
of his hands. 

The further growth of the league was hindered on one 
side by Athens, too proud to act with other states, and on 
the other by Lacedaemon, now under an able king, Cleom- 
enes. Wishing to restore decayed Sparta to her ancient 
condition, Cleomenes abolished the ephorate and probably 
the council, cancelled debts, and redistributed property 
with a view to increasing the number of citizens and sol- 
diers. Sincere in his desire to benefit his city, he was 
perhaps the ablest statesman and the greatest hero of 
Greece after Alexander. Cleomenes applied for permis- 
sion to bring his state into the league and asked to be 
made general. The admission of Sparta on these terms 
would have assured the lasting success of the union, es- 
pecially as it would have provided an able, noble-hearted 
man to succeed Aratus. But the Achaean statesman re- 
fused. Such heroic self-sacrifice could hardly be expected 
of human nature ; and Aratus, though he lived for the 
glory of the union, was selfish. Cleomenes, who had al- 



Rome tJireatens 325 

ready opened war upon the league, now assailed it so vig- 
orously that Aratus was induced to call upon Macedon for 
help. Antigonus, regent of that country, entered Pelo- 221 b.c, 
ponnese with his army and thoroughly defeated Cleomenes. 
When the Spartan king saw all his hopes shattered, he bade 
farewell to his ruined country and sailed away to Egypt, 
where he met a violent death. Greece was now in a 
wretched plight ; Sparta had lost her independence and 
the Achaean League had for the time being enslaved it- 
self to Macedon. Aratus, the mainstay of the union, was 
poisoned at the instigation of Phihp V, who had become 
king of Macedon in 220 b.c. 

We are approaching the conflict between Greece and Rome 
Rome. The city on the Tiber, through her genius for ^'"^^^^^"^• 
organization and her liberality in bestowing political privi- 
leges, had made herself supreme in Italy, and then in a long, 264-241 b.c. 
hard-fought war had wrested Sicily from Carthage and had 
made of it her first province. A second war with Car- 219-201 b.c. 
thage was now going on, and the Carthaginian Hannibal, 
one of the greatest commanders of all time, was in Italy 
annihilating Roman armies and marching wherever he 
willed. With intense interest the Macedonian king 
watched the contest, for he felt that the triumph of 
Italy would be a menace to himself. After the over- 
whelming defeat of the Romans at Cannae, he hastened 216 b.c. 
to ally himself with the victor ; but so far from affecting 
the issue of the struggle, he merely brought upon himself 
the wrath of Rome. 

When accordingly the Roman Scipio had conquered War with 
Hannibal and closed the war, Rome sent her consul Flam- ^°'"^- 
ininus into Greece to punish Philip. The Athenians, the 
^tolians, and others joined the Italian invader, who had 
come, they thought, to deliver them from the insolence of 



326 Alexander's Empire 

Macedon. The eyes of the world followed the movements 
of the Roman legion and the Macedonian phalanx, for now 
for the first time since Pyrrhus these two most efficient 
mihtary systems of ancient times came into conflict. The 
phalanx was a solid body of bronze-clad warriors bristling 
with twenty-four-foot pikes ; on level ground it was un« 
conquerable, but among the hills it could be easily broken. 
The legion, on the contrary, was light and flexible, devel- 
oped especially with a view to fighting the mountaineers 
of central Italy. At Cynoscephalae — Dog's Heads — a 

197 E.G. low range of hills in Thessaly, the armies met, and after 

a sharp struggle the legion was victorious. This success 
was due not only to the Roman military organization, but 
quite as much to the nature of the ground, to the good 
generalship of Flamininus, and to the superiority of Roman 
soldiers over those of Greece. Flamininus compelled Philip 
to cede his Greek dependencies to Rome ; then at the 
Isthmian games in the following spring, amid the rejoi- 
cing of the multitude, the consul proclaimed all these 
states free, and assured to Greece the protection of the 
Western Republic. Some of the liberated states joined the 
^tolian League, others the Achaean. In this struggle the 
Romans had proved themselves the champions of freedom 
against a despot. 

End of the The Romans next waged war upon the Seleucid empire 

and compelled it to give up a large part of Asia Minor. 
Instead of taking possession of this territory, Rome divided 

190 B.C. it between Pergamum and Rhodes, both of which in con- 

sequence became important states. Some years after this 
war the insulting attempts of the Seleucid government to 

163B.C. Hellenize Jerusalem drove the Jews to revolt. Under the 

lead of the able family of Maccabees they finally gained 
practical independence. Still later Parthia wrested from 



Seleucid 
empire 



TJie End 



327 



the Seleucidse all their possessions east of the Euphrates, 

and their great empire dwindled to the petty kingdom 139 b.c. 

of Syria. 

Meantime hostilities broke out again between Rome Conquest of 
and Macedon, now under Perseus, son of Philip V. In M^^^don. 
the fourth year of the war Lucius ^milius Paullus, a 
Roman of great ability and of noble character, took the 
field and defeated Perseus at Pydna. The last of the 168 b.c. 
Macedonian kings, carried a prisoner to Rome, followed 
in the triumphal procession of the conqueror. Macedon, 
at first divided into four republics under the protectorate 
of Rome, finally became a Roman province. 146 b.c. 

The end of Hellenic freedom was drawing near. When The end. 
the quarrels of the Greeks again brought a Roman army 
among them, Mummius, the commander, following the 
instructions given him by the senate, destroyed Corinth, 146 b.c. 
killed most of the men he captured, and sold the women 
and children into slavery. As the beautiful city, stripped 
of her wealth and her art, sank into ruin, the Greeks at 
length reahzed that while they still retained the form of 
liberty, the Roman senate was their master. Though com- 
pelled to submit to Rome, Greece through her arts led the 
conqueror captive and made him the bearer of her civiliza- 
tion to the nations of the West. Through many avenues 
that civiHzation has come down to us as one of the most 
precious inheritances we have received from the past. 

In comparing the achievements of the great races of 
antiquity it has been customary to attribute religion to 
the Hebrews, commerce to the Phoenicians, law and poHti- 
cal organization to the Romans, and to the Greeks ideal 
beauty in literature and in art. Though in general all this 
is true, yet to appreciate what the Hellenic race has actu- 
ally done, we must remember that the sense of symmetry 



328 



Alexander's Empire 



inherent in the soul of the Greek and expressing itself not 
only in literature and art, but in all the walks of life, led him 
to the achievement of the beautiful in every field of activity. 
It was this longing to realize the beautiful which moved the 
Greeks to codify their laws, to reform their constitutions, 
and freeing themselves from the bondage of traditional 




Choragic Monument of Lysicrates 

(Athens.) 

superstition, to live rational lives in private and in public — 
to be a law unto themselves — centuries before these great 
ideas occurred to other peoples. To the love of the beau- 
tiful, tending to arrangement and system, the Greeks owed 
the beginning of science in all its departments. The same 
impulse, in purifying their religion of the grotesque and 



Modem Greece 329 

brutal elements which belong to all primitive worships, 
taught them by a slow and gradual process to conceive 
the heavenly powers as absolutely perfect in form and in 
spirit, and gave rise to the marvellously beautiful thoughts 
of ^schylus and of Plato. In the relations, too, between 
man and man, between nation and nation, it tended to sub- 
stitute for the barriers of local and racial prejudice bonds 
of kindliness and of peace based upon the beautiful senti- 
ments of humanity and of the common brotherhood of 
mankind. Thus it was beauty — yet in the largest and 
most liberal sense of the word — which controlled the 
development of Greek life. 

During the ages which separate us from the days of 
Flamininus and Mummius, Greece, after experiencing the 
varied fortunes of Roman, Byzantine, and Turkish rule, 
became, in the present century, a kingdom under the 
supervision of the powers of Europe. Though two thou- 
sand years have wrought great changes, — 

Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; 
Sweet are thy groves and verdant are thy fields, 
Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled. 
And still his honied wealth Hymettus yields; 
There the bhthe bee his fragrant fortress builds, 
The free-born wanderer of thy mountain-air; 
Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds, 
Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare; 
Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair. 

Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground. 

No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould, 

But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, 

And all the Muse's tales seem truly told, 

Till the sense aches with gazing to behold 

The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon : 

Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold 

Defies the power which crush'd thy temples gone : 

Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon. 

— Byron. 



330 Alexander's Empire 

Sources 

Reading. For Alexander : Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander ; Plutarch, Demos- 

thenes, Alexander, Phocion ; Diodorus, xvii. For the period following 
Alexander : Diodorus, xviii ff.; Plutarch, Eumenes, Demetrius, Pyrrhus, 
Aratus, Agis, Cleomenes, Philopccmen ; Polybius (consult the index for 
the Italians and the Achaans^. 

Modern Authorities 

(1) To the death of Alexander: Holm, History of Greece, III, chs. 
xix-xxvii, xxix; Oman, History of Greece, ch. xliv; AUcroft, Decline 
of Hellas, chs. vii-xi ; Curteis, Rise of the Macedonian Empire, chs. 
viii-xvii; Hogarth, Philip and Alexander; Wheeler, Alexander; 
Dodge, Alexander ; Timayenis, History of Greece, II, pt. viii;- Grote, 
History of Greece, XII, chs. xci-xciv. 

(2) From the death of Alexander to the Roman conquest : Holm, 
iv; Mahaffy, Alexander'' s Empire ; Greek Life and Thought frojn the 
Age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest; Empire of the Ptolemies; 
Thirlwall, History of Greece, vii, viii; Timayenis, History of Greece, 
II, pts. viii, ix; Freeman, History of Federal Government in Greece 
and Italy, for the Leagues. 



CHAPTER XVII 



HELPS TO THE STUDY OF GREEK HISTORY 



Periods of the History 

I. The beginnings of the Greeks — the Prehistoric Age, extend- 
ing from some time ifi the remote past, which has not been 
even approximately determined, to about yoo B.C. 

This is the time in which the Greek race came into 
existence, and developed a character and institutions of its 
own. The ancestors of the Greeks, migrating from the 
north,^ occupied the peninsula now called Greece, then 
spread their settlements eastward over the ^gean Islands 
to the western coast of Asia Minor, and before the close of 
the period began to colonize Italy and Sicily. Meantime 

1 A necessary inference from the view now generally accepted that 
the home of the Aryan, or Indo-European, group of races, to which 
the Greeks belong, was, before the migration of these races to their 
historic countries, mainly in Europe, probably in the region described 
on page i. The theory that they lived originally in central Asia is no 
longer held. The following is a classification of the principal races of 
this group : — 

Greeks 



' European 



Indo-Europeans 



Asiatic 



Italians 
Celts 
Teutons 
. Slavs 



Iranians 



[ Hindoos 



Medes 
Persians 



3Z^ 



332 Helps to tJie Study of Greek History 

some of the Greeks — chiefly those along the east coast of 
the peninsula — progressed beyond the tribal condition, and, 
under Oriental influence, built cities and acquired the civili- 
zation which we call "Mycenaean." Somewhat later the 
colonists in the ^gean Islands and in Asia Minor, advan- 
cing beyond the mother country, produced the first European 
literature, — the Iliad and the Odyssey^ — representing a 
stage of civilization which we call " Epic," considerably 
higher than the Mycenaean. The Tribal, Mycenaean, and 
Epic ages correspond to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages 
respectively. The chief factor in Greek civihzation, — 
the determining institution in Greek history, — is the city- 
state formed with the founding of the first city in the 
Mycenaean Age. The government of the city-state was 
at first monarchical, but before the close of the period 
many monarchies became aristocracies. 

II. The awakening of the Greek mind and the growth of 
natiotial unityj aboiU 'joo-4'jg B.C. 

For about a hundred and fifty years from the beginning 
of this period, Greece continued to expand through coloni- 
zation in various directions, chiefly westward and northward ; 
then the limits of free Hellas on the east receded for a time, 
because of the advance of the Lydian, and afterward of the 
Persian, empire. In this period native industries and com- 
merce became important, and coined money was first used. 
In government many states passed from aristocracy to 
tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy, or to moderate, 
well-regulated oligarchy. Great intellectual progress took 
place : the Greeks made a beginning of science, geography, 
and philosophy ; lyric poetry flourished in all parts of Greece 
— a kind of poetry which shows that the Greeks were ac- 
tively thinking on all subjects suggested by their surround- 



Periods 333 

ings and experiences. Thinking led to religious and moral 
progress ; the Greeks began to exercise self-restraint and 
moderation in life. Their sympathies widened with their 
intelligence ; they discovered that they were all of one 
blood, one speech, and one rehgion, and began to call 
themselves by the common name of Hellenes. They be- 
came aware, too, of the differences between themselves and 
foreigners, whom they called '•' barbarians," and of their own 
superiority to them. Conflicts with foreigners led the Greeks 
to sympathize further with each other, and to feel that they 
ought to combine for mutual defence. Towards the close 
of the period the Persian empire threatened to absorb all 
eastern Greece, while at the same time Carthage menaced 
the Greeks of the West. The pressure of this common 
danger created a strong movement in the direction of 
political unity. Many of the states of continental Greece 
united to resist the encroachment of the Persians ; and in 
the West there was a similar combination against the Car- 
thaginians. The Greeks were overwhelmingly successful 
both in the East and in the West ; Asiatic Greece was set 
free ; Greece was reheved of fear from foreigners ; Greek 
civiHzation was saved for the world ; Greece came out of 
the struggle strong, proud, self-conscious, — ready for great 
achievements in peace and in war. 

III. The most vigorous intellectual and political activity of 
the Greeks, 4^9-404 B.C. 

This is the period of dramatic poetry, of the noblest his- 
torical writing, and of the grand in art; in this time the 
Greeks made a beginning of written oratory and written 
philosophy. In the early part of the period there was 
comparative harmony between political parties and peace 
among the states. But the conflict with foreigners created 



334 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

a strong tendency in the direction of popular government : 
democracies took the place of tyrannies and of aristocracies 
in western Greece, while in Athens, and, under her influ- 
ence, in other eastern states the democratic constitutions 
already existing became still more democratic. This move- 
ment met with opposition from the conservatives, who 
looked to Sparta for protection and guidance. Thus the 
general harmony gave way to a division into democracy 
and oligarchy under the lead of Athens and of Sparta respec- 
tively. Finally, between the two principles of government a 
rupture came in the Peloponnesian War, in which almost all 
the Greeks took part under the lead of Athens or of Sparta. 
The war ended with the temporary overthrow of democracy, 
and the establishment of oligarchy in most of the eastern 
Greek states under the despotic rule of Sparta, while in the 
West another Carthaginian invasion led to the forcible cen- 
tralization of a large part of Sicily, and of some states of 
Magna Grsecia under a despot, Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, 

IV. The ripening of the Greek intellect, and the decline of 
the city-state, 404-338 B.C. 

The ripening of the intellect is indicated. by the dechne 
of poetic literature and the development of prose. This 
was the great age of oratory and of philosophy, of refine- 
ment in literature and in art ; thought prevailed over action 
and strength was to some extent sacrificed to beauty and 
finish. The growing refinement and love of peace is indi- 
cated by the fact that the citizens of the city-states shirked 
military service, so that war came into the hands of mer- 
cenaries drawn largely from the less civilized territorial 
states. 

In the beginning of this period all eastern Greece was 
united under the rule of Sparta and nearly all western 



Periods 



335 




Greece under Dionysius, while Sparta and Dionysius were 
in sympathy with each other. This was the nearest ap- 
proach of Greece 
to poHtical unity ; 
but as neither 
Sparta nor Dio- 
nysius was equal 
to the task of rul- 
ing a free people, 
the two great po- 
litical units soon 
crumbled. Thebes 
under Epaminon- 
das attempted in 
vain to take the 
place of Sparta on 
the continent, 
while the ^gean 
states formed a 
loose, short-lived federation under Athens. The power of 
Thebes fell with the death of Epaminondas ; the Phocians by 
the use of the Delphic treasury came for a brief season into 
great prominence ; and Athens, though disinclined to a vigor- 
ous foreign policy, became the intellectual and moral centre 
of Greece. Among all the city-states there was a tendency to 
political disintegration ; everywhere old leagues were giving 
way to new combinations. But the crumbHng of the city- 
state system, with the breaking down of local prejudices, 
prepared the way for broader and more liberal sympathies, 
— the mill of the gods was grinding Hellenism to humanism. 
Meantime Macedon, a territorial state under King Philip, 
taking advantage of the political disunion and mutual jeal- 
ousies of the city republics, began to encroach upon free 



Corinthian Capital 

(From Epidaurus.) 



^^6 Helps to the Stiidy of Greek History 

Hellas. The crisis came at Chseroneia, where Philip de- 
feated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes ; the era 
of the city-state and of the city leadership ended, and 
the gromid was ready for new and larger experiments in 
poHtics. 

V. Alexander's empire and the federal unions^ and the spread 
of Hellenic civilization over the world, jj 8-146 B.C. 

The states of western Greece, after varied experiences of 
free government, tyranny, and foreign rule — Carthaginian 
and native ItaHan — fell under the power of Rome ; those of 
eastern Greece, still nominally retaining their republican 
constitutions, were but a part of the great Macedonian 
empire which Alexander formed chiefly of the Persian 
empire, but which after his death divided into independent 
kingdoms. Later, many Greek states, mostly of the conti- 
nent, joined in two federal unions — the ^tolian and the 
Achaean — for the protection of their liberties against 
Macedon. The federal union, which united the strength of 
the states, and at the same time left each a large measure of 
independence, was the noblest political creation of the 
Greeks, and might have been a means of preserving their 
liberties, had it not come too late. For Rome, after sub- 
duing western Greece and Carthage, interfered in the affairs 
of the eastern Greeks, and finally annexed their whole 
country to her empire. 

In this period Alexander and his successors spread Hel- 
lenic civilization over the East. The Romans, on the other 
hand, who from the time of their contact with Greece — 
first the western colonies and afterward the mother country 
— had begun to enrich their lives with the Hellenic culture, 
gradually brought that culture in a modified form to the 
nations of western Europe. Among those treasures of 



Examples of Outlines 337 

Hellas, possessed as heirlooms by the world of to-day, there 
are perhaps none which we should prize so highly as the 
ideas of intellectual and political liberty which the Greeks 
were the first to conceive and to make real. 

Examples of Outlines 

I. THE IONIC REVOLT 
I. Causes. 

1 . Oppression by the Persians in — 

a. Religion. 

b. Tyrannies. 

c. Tributes. 

d. Military service, as in — 
(i) Conquest of Egypt. 
(2) Scythian expedition. 

2. Character of the Asiatic Greeks. 

a. Intelligent and liberty-loving. 

b. Increasing nationalism. 

c. Influence of individual leaders, as — 
(i) Miltiades. 

(2) Aristagoras. 

3. Immediate occasion — 

Failure of Aristagoras to conquer Naxos. 

II. Extent of the Revolt, 

The Greeks of Asia Minor, of some of the islands, of the 
Hellespont, of Thrace, of Macedon, and of Chalcidice 
(see Map, p. 127). 

III. Chief Events of the Revolt. 

1. The overthrow of tyrannies in Ionia. 

2. Visit of Aristagoras to Sparta and Athens ; Athens and 

Eretria send help. 

3. The burning of Sardis ; the defeat of the Greeks at 

Ephesus ; results of these events. 

4. Battle at Lade, 497 B.C. 

a. Conduct of the Greeks ; the light which this conduct 

throws upon their character. 

b. Results, 
z 



338 Helps to the Sttidy of Greek Histojy 

5. Capture of Miletus, 494 B.C. 

a. Effect on the city itself. 

b. Effect on the Athenians. 

c. Importance for Europe. 

IV. Results of the War. 

1 . Political enslavement of the Asiatic Greeks ; their grad- 

ual deterioration. 

2. Effect on Europe — a blow to civilization ; cf. what is 

said of the capture of Miletus, p. 115. 

3. Effect on the Greeks — made them feel that Persia was 

irresistible. 

4. Effect on the Persians — led them to invade European 

Greece, — so caused the war between Greece and 
Persia. 

V. Sources of Information. 

a. Original. 

b. Modern. 

2. THE DELIAN CONFEDERACY AND THE ATHE- 
NIAN EMPIRE 

A. The Delian Confederacy 
I. Origin. 

1. Historical precedents. 

a. The Delian Amphictyony. 

b. The Peloponnesian League. 

2. General causes. 

a. Growing feeling of nationality among the Greeks, 

which created a tendency to political unity. 

b. Desire on the part of those Greeks who inhabited 

Asia Minor and the ^gean Islands of maintain- 
ing their liberty against Persia. 

3. Events leading to it. 

a. The war with Persia, which resulted in the liberation 

of the Greeks of Asia Minor and of the -^gean 
Islands. 

b. The building of the Athenian navy, on the proposi- 

tion of Themistocles, 483 B.C., which enabled 
Athens to offer protection to these Greeks. 



Examples of Outlines 339 

c. The Athenian alliance with some of the Asiatic 

Greeks after the battle of Mycale, 479 B.C. Rea- 
sons for this alliance, 
(i) The Peloponnesians, feeling unable to protect 
these Greeks in their homes, proposed to 
transplant them to the European side of the 
iEgean. 
(2) Athens, powerful at sea and ambitious for leader- 
ship, regarding these Greeks as her colo- 
nists, offered them the desired protection. 

d. Transfer of the naval leadership from Lacedaemon 

to Athens. 
(i) Why the Lacedaemonians yielded the leadership. 

(a) They saw no advantage to themselves in 

continuing the war with Persia. 

(b) They could not trust their commanders 

abroad — Pausanias, their regent, had 
brought them into danger and disgrace 
by his conduct. 

(c) They believed that by controlling the policy 

of Athens they could still enjoy virtual 
supremacy by sea as well as by land. 
(2) Why Athens accepted the naval leadership, 

(a) Her ambition for leadership and her power- 

ful navy. 

(b) Her close relations, through commerce and 

kinship, with the Asiatic Greeks. 

(c) The request of the Asiatic Greeks, who pre- 

ferred Aristeides and Cimon to Pausa- 
nias, and who felt that they would be 
safer under the protection of a naval 
power (Athens) than under a mere 
land power (Lacedaemon) . 

n. Object of the Confederacy. 

1 . Protection from Persia. 

2. Plunder of Persian territory. 

III. Organization. 

I. Themistocles probably the. chief organizer ; see Timo- 
creon in Plutarch, Themistocles . 



340 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

2. Based upon the older Delian Amphictyony in — 

a. Religion — the worship of Apollo. 

b. Kinship — the nucleus of the Confederacy was Ionic. 

c. Seat of government — the island of Delos. 

3. Patterned after the Peloponnesian League in — 

a. Congress of deputies from the allies under presidency 

of deputies from the leading city. 

b. Forces of the allies commanded by generals from the 

leading city. 

c. Independence of the allies guaranteed. 

(i) They could have whatever constitutions they 

wished. 
(2) They could enter into relations of war and peace 

with other states. 

4. Advance beyond the Peloponnesian League. 

a. Permanent force — a navy for the security of the 

^gean waters. 

b. Regular revenues : — 
Assessment of Aristeides. 

(i) Generally the larger states furnished ships and 

crews; the smaller paid taxes. 
(2) Total assessment — 460 talents a year. 

IV. Transition from Confederacy to Empire. 

1 . Opposition to the Confederacy, which compelled Athens 

to use force in holding it together. 

a. Desire of the Greeks for the absolute independence 

of their towns, arising from — 
(i) The character of the city-state. 

(2) The individuality of the Greeks. 

(3) The ambition of leading families, who hoped to 

gain control of their states if the latter 
should be free from Athenian influence. 

b. Rapid expansion of the Confederacy, which — 
(i) Removed all fear of Persian attack. 

(2) Aroused the jealousy of the Peloponnesians. 

2. Political incapacity of the allies. 

a. Inability to combine among themselves for the pro- 
tection of their liberties against Athens. Such 
a combination of two hundred cities which were 



Examples of OiU lines ^ 341 

widely separated and had few common interests 
demanded a political experience possessed by 
no people in the world at that time. It was 
inevitable, therefore, that the Confederacy fall to 
pieces, unless held together by force. 
b. Indisposition of the allies to military service, lead- 
ing to — 
(i) The commutation of personal service for money 

payments, and the consequent — 
(2) Degradation of the allies to the condition of 
protected subjects. 

3. Character of Athens as leader. 

a. Her power relatively so great as to leave no scope 

for equality between herself and her allies. 

b. Growth of democracy (from Aristeides to Pericles), 

which aimed at equalizing the citizens by enhst- 
ing as many of them as possible in the paid 
ser\dce of the state, which demanded — 
(i) Large revenues. 

(2) A vast amount of public work. Athens supplied 
this work by assuming a stricter control of 
the affairs of the allies, — by converting the 
Confederacy into an Empire. 

4. Events of the transition, 

a. Revolt of Naxos, 469 B.C. 

b. Battle of Eurymedon, 468 B.C. 

c. Revolt of Thasos ; interference of Lacedaemon, 

465 B.C. 

d. Rupture between Athens and Lacedaemon. 462 B.C. 

e. War between Athens and some of the Peloponne- 

sians, 458 B.C. 
/. History of the Athenian Continental Federation, 

456-447 B.C. 
g. Transfer of the treasury from Delos to Athens, 

454 B.C. (or earlier). 

B. The Athenian Empire 
I. Origin; see A, IV. 
II. Organization and Government. 
I. Two classes of allies. 



342 Helps to the Stitdy of Greek History 

a. Independent — Chians, Lesbians, and Samians — 

enjoying all the original privileges of the allies ; 
see A, III, 3, c. 

b. Dependent — all the rest : allies from the point of 

view of state law ; in reality, subjects. 
z. Treaties imposed by Athens upon the dependent allies, 
which — 

a. Deprived them of the privileges mentioned in A, III, 3 c. 

b. Assured them democratic governments. 

c. Required them to send their more important law cases 

to be tried before Athenian courts. 

3. Tributes. (Gilbert, p. 420 ff. ; Greenidge, p. 196 ff.). 

a. Division into tribute-districts. 

b. Quadrennial assessments. 

c. Hellenic treasurers ; payments and forced collections. 

d. Substitution of export and import duties, 413/12 B.C. 

4. Jurisdiction. (Gilbert, p. 429 ff. ; Greenidge, p. 196 f.). 

a. Cases brought to Athens. 

b. Judicial officers. 

c. Limitation of the independence of the allies. 

5. Religion. 

a. Athena takes the place of Apollo ; allies participate 

in the Panathenaea. 

b. The Eleusinian w^orship. 

6. Athenian colonies (cleruchies). 

a. Object. 

(i) To provide the poorer Athenians with land. 
(2) To garrison the Empire. 

b. Effect. 

(i) Assimilation of the allies to Athens in language, 

customs, etc. 
(2) Resented by the allies as an encroachment upon 

their property. 

III. Condition of the Allies. 

1. Very prosperous — the Empire advantageous to them. 

2. The majority contented; dissatisfaction of a few. 

IV. Place of the Empire in history. 

I. The highest political development yet reached by the 
Greeks. 



Studies 



343 



2. It gave the Romans models of municipal organization 

and administration. 

3. It enabled Athens to make her enormous contribution to 

civilization. 

4. It did much towards making the Attic dialect, literature, 

and civilization the common property of Greece. 

V. Causes of its Overthrow. 

1. Sources of weakness within. 

a. The love of the allies for town independence — the 

schemes of ambitious pohticians (oligarchs) . 

b. The narrowness of the Athenian policy in relation to 

the allies. 

2. The fear and jealousy of the Athenian power on the part 

of the Peloponnesians, which led to — 

3. The Peloponnesian War, which ended in the dissolution 

of the Empire. 

VI. Sources of Information. 

a. Original. 

b. Modem. 

Studies 
CHAPTER I 

1. Compare the migration of the Angles and Saxons into 

England with the migration of the Greeks into Greece. 
How are the Greeks and the English related ? See 
p. 331, n. I. 

2. Compare the life of the early Greeks (i) with the life of the 

earliest European settlers in America; (2) with the life 
of the North American Indians. 

3. Had the harbors been mostly on the west coast of Greece, 

what would have been the effect on the character and 
history of the Greeks ? 

4. Why did the Greeks improve more by contact with the 

Phoenicians than the North American Indians did by 
contact with the Europeans ? 

5. Why were the earliest kingdoms in the deltas? What are 

the differences between these kingdoms and those of 
modern Europe ? 



344 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

6. What do we learn of life in the palace from the passage of 

the Odyssey quoted on p. 5 ff. ? How much progress 
had the Greeks made since they came into Greece ? 

7. Describe from the map the area of the Mycenaean civiliza- 

tion. 

8. Why did the earhest Greek colonists go east rather than 

west? 

9. Draw a map of the ^gean coasts and islands, and place on 

it the lonians, the ^^olians, and the Dorians. 

10. In what respects was the civilization of Ionia in advance of 

that of Mycenae? 

11. If the government under which we live should cease to pro- 

tect our lives, who would undertake this duty? Why 
did not the Greek government of the Epic Age protect 
the lives of the citizens ? 

12. Were the Greeks of the Epic Age more hospitable than the 

moderns are? If so, why? 

13. Did the Greeks of the Epic Age have a single standard of 

value ? 

14. Compare the government of the Epic Age with any modern 

government with which you are acquainted. 

15. What is the difference between the town-meeting of the 

Greeks in the Epic Age and that which we now find in 
the United States? 

16. Why did not the Greeks abolish the office of king? Why 

have not the English done so? 

17. Was there more good than evil in the religion of the Epic 

Age ? What are the reasons for your opinion ? 

18. Compare the Mycenaean Age with the Epic Age. 

19. Write a short paper on " Life in the Mycenaean Age " 

(Tsountas and Manatt, Gardner, Holm) ; on " Govern- 
ment in the Epic Age " (Grote, Holm, etc.) . 

20. Make an outline analysis of this chapter; see model out- 

lines, p. 337 ff. 

CHAPTER II 

1. How much of the story of the Phaeacians (p. 20) is true? 

2. Were there families, brotherhoods, and tribes before there 

were cities? 



Studies 



345 



3. What are the differences between a Greek state and a 

modern state ? 

4. Trace the development of the large Greek state (Athens or 

Sparta) from the tribal organization of society. 

5. Why did not Thebes become in early times as strong as 

Athens or Sparta? 
6 Why did the Plain have the advantage over the Hills in 
early Greek warfare ? 

7. If you were to live in the city of Athens or of Sparta, which 

would you prefer, and why ? If you were to live in the 
suburbs of Athens or of Sparta, which would you 
prefer ? 

8. Compare Attica with Thessaly in the seventh century B.C. 

Which was the further developed state at the time ? 

9. What were the chief attractions for colonists in Italy and 

Sicily ? 

10. Why should the laws of Zaleucus be more severe than those 

of our country ? What great service did the Greeks do 
for the world in lawmaking ? 

1 1 . What were the principal motives for colonization ? 

12. Mention some Dorian cities which were commercial. Men- 

tion one which was agricultural. Were the Dorians 
chiefly agricultural, or chiefly commercial ? What were 
the principal occupations of the lonians ? Which were 
more enterprising, Dorians or lonians? 

13. Compare Sparta with Locri ; with Tarentum. 

14. Did the colonies or the mother country advance more 

rapidly in civilization? How did the colonies benefit 
the mother country? Compare the Greek colonies with 
the modern European colonies in various parts of the 
world. What were the boundaries of Greece in the 
middle of the sixth century B.C. ? Did Greece always 
have the same boundaries ? 

15. Write a paper on " Theseus" ; on " The Dorian Migration" ; 

on " Colonization in the West." For bibHography, p. 40. 

16. Make an outline of the subjects treated in this chapter. 

CHAPTER III 

I . Compare the decline of kingship at Athens with the decline 
of kingship in Ionia (Ch. I). 



34^ Helps to the Study of Greek History 

2. Make an outline of the history of the office of king from 

the Tribal Age to its overthrow at Athens. Dis- 
tinguish periods of growth and decline. 

3. Compare Draco with Zaleucus. 

4. Was Solon's currency reform honest? Was it beneficial? 

Compare the present agitation for currency reform in 
the United States. 

5. Which altered the government more, Draco or Solon? 

6. What changes did Solon make in the four census classes ? 

7. What power did Solon transfer from the Council of the 

Areopagus to the popular supreme court ? 

8. Should we speak of "Solon's Constitution"? In referring 

to recent English history, would it be right to say 
" Gladstone's Constitution " ? 

9. Trace the development of the following institutions from the 

earliest times to the end of Solon's legislation : ( i ) Coun- 
cil of the Areopagus ; (2) assembly ; (3) archons ; 
(4) census classes. 

10. Compare Solon with Draco; with Cylon; with Zaleucus. 

1 1 . Was Lycurgus a man or a god ? 

12. Compare the Spartans and the Athenians of the seventh cen- 

tury B.C. in culture and in military power. 

13. Compare the Laconian helots with the poor tenants of Attica. 

Would it be right to say " Spartan helots " ? 

14. Was the life of a Spartan preferable to that of a perioecus? 

15. At what time did the government of Athens and of Lace- 

daemon most nearly resemble each other? Compare 
them at this time. 

16. Write a paper on Solon ; on Lycurgus. 

17. Make an outline of the subjects of this chapter. 

CHAPTER IV 

1. What was the difference between a king and a tyrant? 

2. What reasons are there for believing that Cleisthenes of 

Sicyon was a wise and able ruler? What indications 
are there of his wealth and power? Which was the 
more powerful state in his time, Sicyon or Athens, and 
why? Why did Athens gain control of a larger territory 
than Sicyon did ? 



Studies 347 

3. Which was preferable, a tyranny or an oligarchy ? Which did 

the common people prefer, and why ? Why did the fami- 
lies of tyrants degenerate rapidly ? Compare the tyrants 
of Corinth with those of Sicyon ; with those of Athens. 

4. Compare Arcadia with Laconia in respect to country, people, 

and government. 

5 . Compare the Peloponnesian League with the United States 

(i) in general government; (2) in the relations of the 
states to each other and to the central government. 

6. Compare Isagoras and Cleisthenes of Athens in character 

and in policy. Which was the more admirable man? 
Why did the Council of Four Hundred resist Isagoras? 

7. Compare the Athenian government of 590 B.C. with that of 

500 B.C. What changes had taken place between Solon 
and Cleisthenes ? Which one of these men made the 
greater change in the constitution ? Make a compara- 
tive table of their reforms. 

8. Why did the Corinthians favor Athens ? Did the Corinthian 

speaker tell the whole truth about tyranny ? 

9. Make an outline of the separate histories of Athens, Sparta, 

and Argos to 500 B.C., dividing into periods and giving 
the characteristics of each period (Holm, Abbott, etc.). 

10. Compare Greece in 500 B.C. with Greece in 600 B.C. How 

much progress was made in this century? 

1 1 . Write a paper on " The Tyrants " ; on " The Alcmeonidae " ; 

on "The Development of the Athenian Constitution 
from Solon to Cleisthenes." 

CHAPTER V 

1 . Would you prefer to read the poems of Homer or of Hesiod? 

Which were the more useful ? 

2. Judging from the map, which country do you think was bet- 

ter situated for commerce, Attica or Boeotia? Why 
was not Boeotia a commercial country? 

3. How does personal poetry differ from epic poetry? 

4. What were the early Greek philosophers aiming to discover? 

5. What progress did the Greeks make in morals and religion 

from the Tribal Age to the end of the period covered 
by this chapter? 



348 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

6. Did the oracle of Apollo benefit the Greeks more than it 

injured them? 

7. Compare Pindar's idea of the future life with that of Homer. 

8. Write a paper on "The Great National Games"; on "The 

Religion of the Greeks " ; on " Pindar" ; on " Sappho." 

9. Make an outline of the subject of this chapter. 

CHAPTER VI 

1. Why did Croesus admire the Greeks ? 

2. Write a connected history of Ionia, with especial reference 

to civilization from the time of its colonization to the 
beginning of the war with Persia (Chs. I, V, VI) . 

3. Compare the lonians with the Spartans ; with the Athenians. 

4. Were the Cohans and the Dorians of Asia Minor in any 

respect better than the lonians? 

5. Who was the abler ruler, Croesus or Cyrus? 

6. What did Cyrus mean by the fable of the piper and fishes? 

7. Why were the lonians unwilling to unite in one state? 

8. What objection had the Spartans to purple robes? How do 

you suppose they dressed? 

9. What was the religious feeling of the Greeks with reference 

to digging channels ? 

10. Why should the thorough organization of the Persian em- 

pire make the government rest more heavily upon the 
lonians? 

11. What seems improbable in the story of the message of His- 

tiaeus to his son-in-law? 

12. In what respect were the Spartans kinsmen of the lonians? 

Were they as near as the Athenians in kinship? 

13. Did the Athenians act justly towards Phrynichus? 

14. Should we praise the Athenians and the Spartans for their 

treatment of the king's heralds? 

CHAPTER VII 

1. What were the causes of the war with Persia? 

2. Did the Lacedaemonians have any especial reason for not 

wishing to help the Athenians at the time of the battle 
of Marathon? 



Studies 



349 



3. With what object was Hippias guiding the Persians in their 

invasion of Attica? Give the previous history of Hip- 
pias. 

4. Compare the Persian mode of fighting with that of the 

Greeks (cf. Ch. VI). 

5. To what poUticai party did Miltiades belong? Why did the 

republicans oppose him? 

6. Was ostracism of advantage to Athens in the years imme- 

diately following the battle of Marathon? 

7. Give the history of the archons and of the Council of the 

Areopagus, from the earliest times to the year 487 B.C. 
What was the previous history of the office of general? 

8. Which seems to have served his country better, Themistocles 

or Aristeides ? 

9. What was the chief fault of Sparta in conducting the war for 

the defence of Greece against Persia? 

10. What city deserved most credit for the victory at Salamis? 

at Plataea? 

11. Did the Delphic oracle help the Greeks in the war with Per- 

sia? (cf. Ch. V). 

12. From i^schylus' account of the battle of Salamis, describe 

the manoeuvres of the Greek ships. 

13. Could the Greeks have been successful in the war without 

the help of Sparta and of the Peloponnesian League? 

14. What were the causes of the war with Carthage? 

15. Compare the Carthaginian invasion with that of the Persians. 

16. Make an outline of the war with Persia and Carthage, includ- 

ing causes, principal events, general character, and re- 
sults. 

17. Compare the Persian war with the American Revolution. 

CHAPTER Vin 

1. Compare Hieron with Pisistratus. 

2. Give the history of Syracuse from the earliest times to the 

overthrow of tyranny. How does the history of Syra- 
cuse compare with that of Athens ? 

3. What were the principal peoples of Italy in the time of 

Hieron? Describe the character and civilization of the 
Etruscans. (Consult some history of Rome, as Momm- 
sen, Ihne, or How and Leigh.) 



350 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

4. What had the principal Greek states sacrificed, and what 

had each achieved, in the war with Persia? 

5. What might have happened, had not Themistocles outwitted 

the Lacedaemonians with reference to the fortifications 
of Athens? Had Athens remained unfortified, what 
would probably have been her relations with Sparta? 
Is Themistocles to be blamed for the trick? 

6. Why were the Lacedaemonian commanders untrustworthy? 

7. Write an account of the life and character of Themistocles ; 

of Aristeides ; of Pausanias. Compare these men with 
each other. 

8. Write the history of the Delian Confederacy, following the 

outline on p. 338. 

9. Is the Athenian policy of holding the Confederacy together 

by force justifiable? What would have happened to 
the allied states if the Confederacy had been dissolved ? 

10. Give a brief sketch of Greek culture, from the earliest times 

to the end of the Age of Cimon. Give a similar sketch 
of Greek religion. 

1 1 . Compare the religious ideas of ^schylus with those of the 

Christians. 

12. Give the history of the Council of the Areopagus, from the 

earliest times to the year 462 B.C. 

13. Draw a parallel between the histories of eastern and west- 

ern Greece during the Age of Cimon. 

14. Write a paper on "Cimon"" (see especially Curtius). 

CHAPTER IX 

1. Write a brief biography of Ducetius (Freeman, Holm, 

Grote). 

2. Give an account of the Samnites (Histories of Rome by 

Mommsen, Ihne, Duruy, How and Leigh, etc.). 

3. How long was Athens in the Peloponnesian League? Give 

a sketch of her relations with the League to 462 B.C. 

4. Discuss the character and social position of the helots. 

5. Why did the conservatives of Athens oppose war between 

their city and her neighbors? 

6. Give briefly the history of Boeotia, from the earliest times to 

the year 457 B.C. 



Studies 351 

7. Compare Athens and Lacedaemon in 456 B.C., with respect 

to their miHtary power and the extent of territory which 
they respectively controlled. 

8. Compare Cimon and Pericles with respect to character and 

policy. 

9. Show how the Confederacy of Delos was converted into the 

Athenian empire. How did the rise of democracy at 
Athens contribute to this change ? How did this change 
contribute to the rise of democracy at Athens and among 
the allies ? 

10. Read Thucydides on the revolt of the Samians, with a view 

to determining whether they had sufficient cause for 
revolt. 

1 1 . Give the history of the popular supreme court, of the archon- 

ship, and of the relations between these two institutions, 
from Solon to 457 B.C. Why should the rise of the 
court and the decline of the archonship go hand in 
hand? 

12. Compare the Athenian jury system with that of our own 

time. Which is preferable? 

13. Compare the process of legislation at Athens, after Pericles, 

with that in our own country. 

14. Write a paper on " Slavery in Greece." 

15. Write a paper on "Art in the Age of Pericles." 

16. Contrast the Athenians with the Spartans in the Age of 

Pericles (see especially the Funeral Oration of Pericles 
in Thucydides). 

17. Write an outline of the subjects treated in this chapter. 

CHAPTER X 

1. Which was the stronger in 431 B.C., Athens or Lacedaemon? 

What are the reasons for your opinion? Which state 
was chiefly responsible for the war? Make an outline of 
the causes of the war. 

2. Write an account of the plague at Athens (Thucydides, 

Grote, Curtius). 

3. Write a biography of Pericles, with your estimate of his 

character and achievements. Compare him with The- 
mistocles. 



352 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

4. Was Cleon a demagogue or a statesman ? Write an argu- 

ment on this subject (Grote, Cox, Curtius, Holm, 
Whibley, Greenidge, etc.). 

5. Compare Demosthenes and Nicias as commanders. Com- 

pare Demosthenes with Brasidas. 

6. Would Pericles have advised the attempt to conquer Boeo- 

tia? Give reasons for your opinion. 

7. Write a biography of Alcibiades, with a discussion of his 

character and ability. 

8. Debate the question whether the Athenians were right in 

their treatment of the Melians. 

9. What can be said in favor of the Athenian expedition to 

Sicily ? 

10. Compare the Athenian disaster in Sicily, 413 B.C., with that 

in Egypt, 454 B.C. 

11. Make an outline of the Peloponnesian War to the year 

413 B.C. 

CHAPTER XI 

1. Was there more evil than good in the New Learning ? 

Give reasons for your opinion. 

2. What was the effect of the New Learning on the history of 

Athens ? Why is it necessary to study Greek philoso- 
phy in connection with Greek history? 

3. Is it right for an orator in any sense " to make the worse 

cause appear the better " ? 

4. Is there anything irreligious in Ion's address to Phoebus 

(p. 219)? 

5. What is wrong with the argument of the youth mentioned 

on p. 220? 

6. Which was the more truly religious, Euripides or Aristoph- 

anes? Which did more for the improvement of his 
countrymen ? 

7. Write a biography of Socrates. 

8. Which was the better historian, Herodotus or Thucydides? 

9. Why was the Persian king pleased with the defeat of Athens 

in Sicily? Does his conduct towards the Greeks help 
us to appreciate the service which Athens had been 
performing for her allies ? 
10. Why did not the educated men of Athens make good rulers ? 



Studies 353 

1 1 . Compare the rule of the Four Hundred with the Knightly 

Aristocracy of Athens, 750-650 B.C. ; with the govern- 
ment of Athens in the time of Draco. 

12. Were the Athenians wise in refusing the terms of peace 

offered by Lacedaemon after the battle of Arginusae 
and after that of Cyzicus ? 

13. Make an outline of the subjects of this chapter. 

CHAPTER XII 

1. Give an account of Sicily from Gelon to Dionysius I. 

2. Compare Dionysius I with Pisistratus. 

3. Write an account of the wars which Dionysius I waged with 

the Carthaginians (Freeman, Holm). 

4. Write a biography of Timoleon (Plutarch) . Compare him 

with Pyrrhus. 

5. What were the advantages and disadvantages of Roman 

rule to the Greeks (Histories of Rome) ? 

6. Make an outline of the subject of this chapter. 

CHAPTER XIII 

1 . Compare the rule of Sparta with that of Athens. 

2. Write an account of the rule of the "Thirty" (Grote, 

Curtius, Holm). 

3. Compare the condition of Lacedaemon in the fourth century 

B.C. with her condition in the seventh. In this interval 
what changes had been made in the Lacedaemonian 
constitution? 

4. Write a biography of Agesilaus (Xenophon, Plutarch). 

Compare him with Lysander. 

5. Was the treaty of Antalcidas a disgrace to Greece? Who 

was responsible for it ? 

6. Write a biography of Epaminondas (Grote, Curtius, 

Holm). 

7. Write a paper on "The Character and Methods of the Oli- 

Sfarchic and Democratic Parties in Greece." 

8. What were the defects in the Lacedaemonian system ? Did 

Greece gain anything from the Spartan supremacy? 
(cf. Ch. XIV). 

9. Make an outline of the subject of this chapter. 

2A 



354 Helps to the Sttcdy of Greek History 

CHAPTER XIV 

1. Were the Athenians wise in joining Lacedaemon against 

Thebes? Give the previous history of the relations 
between Athens and Lacedaemon. 

2. Compare the rule of Thebes with that of Sparta. 

3. In times of adversity, did the Spartans conduct themselves 

more admirably than the Athenians? 

4. How have the English and the Americans learned selfrgovern- 

ment ? Give from Greek history examples of natural and 
artificial constitutions, and compare their merits. 

5. Was Thebes more blameworthy than Sparta had been for 

inviting Persia to meddle in Greek affairs? 

6. Write a biography of Pelopidas (Plutarch). 

7. Write a history of the general Hellenic conventions in the 

fourth century B.C., comparing them with each other 
(Grote, Holm). 

8. Compare the civilization of the fourth century B.C. with that 

of the fifth. 

9. Compare the three great Greek historians. 

10. Compare Praxiteles with Pheidias. 

1 1 . Make an outline of the subjects of this chapter. 

CHAPTER XV 

1. Why did not Thessaly and Macedon develop in civilization 

as rapidly as Attica? 

2. Compare the Macedonians with the Homeric Greeks. 

3. Write a biography of Philip (Grote, Holm, Hogarth). 

4. Could we say that in the time of Philip the Athenians had 

declined from the fifth century B.C. ? 

5. Was Demosthenes wise in constantly opposing Macedon? 

Debate this question. 

6. Compare the Macedonian army under Philip and Alexander 

with that of Lacedaemon ; with that of Thebes under 
Epaminondas. 

7. Was the rise of Macedon advantageous to Greece? 

8. Make an outline of the subject of this chapter. 

CHAPTER XVI 

I. Can we say that under the rule of Philip and of Alexander 
Greece was still free ? 



Events 355 

2. Write a biography of Alexander (Arrian, Plutarch). 

3. Compare the career of Alexander with that of Hannibal, 

Caesar, or Napoleon. 

4. Are there reasons for believing that without Philip and 

Alexander the Greeks would ever have conquered the 
Persian empire ? 

5. Had Alexander lived to old age, what may we reasonably 

suppose he would have accomplished ? 

6. Were the conquests of Alexander beneficial to the con- 

quered ? 

7. Were the Greeks unwise in opposing Alexander? 

8» Compare, with respect to quality, the Alexandrian literature 
with that of Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. 
9. Write a history of Greek federations (Freeman) . 
ID. Write a biography of Aratus ; of Cleomenes (Plutarch). 

11. Is it to be regretted that Rome conquered Greece ? 

12. What benefits do we derive from a study of Grecian history? 

Why should we pay more attention to the civilization 
of the Greeks than to the details of their campaigns and 
battles ? 

13. Make an outline of the subjects of this chapter. 



Events in Chronological Order 

B.C. 

Remote past The Tribal Age. 

1500-1000 (about) The Mycenaean Age. 

Colonization of the ^gean Islands and of 

Asia Minor. 
1000 (about) Colonization of Cyprus. 

._«oo-7oo (about) The beginnings of states and of leagues. 
1^5-700 (about) The Epic Age. 
<*pj^ - . The First Olympiad. 

753 (?) Institution of decennial kings at Athens. 

750-550 (about) Colonization of Italy and Sicily, of the 

north vEgean coasts, of the Hellespont, 

the Propontis^ and the Black Sea coasts, 

Cyrene, etc. 
753-650 (about) Period of the Knightly Aristocracy at Athens. 
725 (about) The First Messenian War. 



356 Helps to the Study of Greek History 





B.C. 


713 


(?) 


700 


(about) 


683 




683 (or later) 


670- 


-560 (about) 


655-582 


650-594 


650 


(about) 


640 




628 


(?) 


621 




610 


(about) 


594 




594-590 (?) 


582- 


-580 


556-468 


560- 


-527 


560- 


-546 


558- 


-529 


553 




550 


(about) 



546 

529-522 

527-510 
525-456 

522-485 
522-448 

514 
510 

510-508 



The office of king at Athens thrown open 

to the nobles. 
Pheidon king of Argos. 
i,J-iie of Hesiod, the poet. 
Institution of annual offices at Athens. 
Institution of the thesmothetae at Athens. 
The Orthagoridae (family of Cleisthenes) rule 

Sicyon. 
The Cypselidas rule Corinth. 
Period of the Timocracy of the Heavy-armed 

Infantry at Athens. 
The Second Messenian War. 
Cylon of Athens winner in the Olympic games. 
Cylon's conspiracy. 
Draco's legislation. 
Solon takes Salamis for Athens. 
Solon Archon and thesmothete — his legislation. 
The First Sacred War. 
Damasias Archon of Athens. 
/ TJfp of Simonides. 

Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. 

Croesus king of Lydia. 

Cyrus king of Persia. 

Cyrus throws off the Median yoke. 

War between Lacedaemon and Argos for the 

possession of Cynuria. 
The Peloponnesian League well developed. 
Sparta the head of Peloponnese. 
Cyrus begins to conquer the Greeks of Asia 

Minor. 
Cambyses king of Persia. 
Hippias tyrant of Athens. 
-^JLife of ^schylus. 
Darius king of Persia. 

ife of Pindar. 
Darius invades Europe (Scythian expedition). 
Sybaris destroyed by the men of Croton. 
Trouble between Isagoras and Cleisthenes of 

Athens. 



Events 357 

B.C. 

508 Cleisthenes reforms the government of Athens. 

499-494 The Ionic revolt. 

499-498 Aristagoras at Sparta and at Athens. 

498 Burning of Sardis ; defeat of the Greeks at 

Ephesus. 
497 Battle of Lade. 

496-406 i — Life of Sophocles. 

494 Capture of Miletus. 

Miltiades flees to Athens. 
493 Archonship of Themistocles ; improvement of 

the harbors of Peiraeus. 
Mardonius invades Europe. 
490-479 War with Persia and with Carthage. 

490 Battle of Marathon. 

Expedition of Miltiades to Paros ; his condem- 
nation. 
487 Change in the mode of filling the archonship 

at Athens — the government becomes more 
democratic. 
485 Gelon becomes tyrant of Syracuse. 

484 (?)-425 (?) l^J^io. of Herodotus. 
483 Ostracism of Aristeides. 

482 Themistocles' naval decree passes. 

480-406 ^'^tife of Euripides. 

480 Battle of Thermopylae ; battle of Artemi- 

sium. 
The Athenians withdraw from Athens. 
Battle of Salamis. 
Battle of Himera. 
479 Battles of Plataea and Mycale. 

Alliance- between the Athenians and some of 
the Asiatic Greeks. 
478 Siege of Byzantium ; the Athenians gain the 

naval leadership of the Greeks. 
Themistocles fortifies Athens. 
477-454 (?) The Delian Confederacy. 

477 Organization of the Confederacy. 

476 Themistocles fortifies Peiraeus; attends the 

Olympic games. 



V 



353 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

B.C. 

476-475 The expedition of Leotychidas to Thessaly. 

475 Themistocles in the Amphictyonic Council at 

Delphi ; his trial for treason. 

474 Battle off Cumae. 

472-465 Revolution in Sicily. 

472 ( ?) Ostracism of Themistocles. 

472-471 Death of Pausanias ; flight of Themisto- 

cles. 

470-400 (about) i^'lljfe of Thucydides. 

469-339 iJ-ife of Socrates. 

469 Revolt of Naxos. 

468 The battle of the Eurymedon. 

464 Themistocles goes to the court of the Persian 

king. 
Earthquake at Sparta ; revolt of the helots. 

463 Cimon reduces Thasos. 

462 Cimon leads a force to the aid of the Lace- 

daemonians against the helots. 
The Council of the Areopagus deprived of its 
political functions ; introduction of pay for 
jury service. 
Rupture in the alliance between Athens and 
Lacedaemon. 



(?) 


Assassination of Ephialtes. 


461 


The Sicilian republics firmly established. 




The ostracism of Cimon. 


461-431 


The Age of Pericles. 


459 


Expedition to Egypt. 


(?) 


Surrender of Mount Ithome. 


458 


Battle in Megaris ; battle off ^Egina. 




The Long Walls begun. 


457 


The Boeotian League restored. 




Battle of Tanagra. 




The Zeugitae admitted to the archonship at 




Athens. 


456 (?) 


Battlp of Oenophyta. 


456-447 


Athenian Continental Federation. 


456 


Conquest of ^gina. 


454 


Athenian disaster in Egypt. 



Events 359 

B.C. 

(?) Transfer of the confederate treasury from Delos 

to Athens ; the Delian Confederacy becomes 

the Athenian Empire. 
451 The Five Years' Truce between Athens and 

Lacedaemon. 
450-385 (about) /-Life-of Aristophanes. 
450-380 (about)^Iife of Lysias. 
449 Death of Cimon. 

447 The Athenians compelled to evacuate Boeotia. 

446 Euboea and Megaris revolt against Athens. 

445 The Thirty Years' Truce between Athens 

and Lacedaemon. 
443 Founding of Thurii. 

442 Ostracism of Thucydides, son of Melesias. 

440 The revolt of Samos. 

438 / . Th e Parthenon completed. 

437~432 The building of the Propylaea. 

436-338 (about)" — Life of Isocrates. 
435 Corinth defeated by Corcyra. 

434-354 (about) '^—fcife of Xenophon. 
432 Battle off Sybota. 

The Peloponnesian Congress declares war 

upon Athens. 
431-404 The Peloponnesian War. 

431 The Thebans surprise Plataea. 

The Peloponnesians invade Attica ; Pericles 

ravages the Peloponnesian coast. 
Pericles delivers his funeral oration. 
430 The plague at Athens. 

429 Death of Pericles. 

Phormion gains two naval victories for Athens. 
428 Revolt of Lesbos. 

427 Lesbos surrenders to Athens. 

Plataea surrenders to Lacedaemon. 
Sedition in Corcyra. 
427-347 /-Life of Plato. 

426 Demosthenes fails to conquer ^tolia for 

Athens ; wins a brilliant victory over the 

Ambraciots. 



360 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

B.C. 

425 Demosthenes seizes Pylos. 

Peace negotiations. 
424 The Athenians capture Cythera and Nisaea. 

The expedition of Brasidas. 

Peace in Sicily. 

Battle of Delium. 
423 Truce for a year. 

422 Battle of Amphipolis. 

421 Peace of Nicias 

418 Battle at Mantineia. 

417 Ostracism of Hyperbolus. 

416 The conquest of Melos. 

415-413 The Sicilian expedition. 
414-413 The siege of Syracuse. 
413 The Peloponnesians invade Attica. 

Ruin of the Athenian armament at Syracuse. 
412 The Chians and other alhes of Athens revolt. 

Treaty of alliance between Persia and Lacedaemon ; 
Persia with her money supports the war against 
Athens. 
411 Rule of the Four Hundred at Athens. 

Alcibiades recalled from banishment. 
410 Athenian victory at Cyzicus. 

Peace negotiations. 
409 The Carthaginians invade Sicily. 

407 Lysander defeats the Athenians ; Alcibiades returns into 

exile. 
406 The battle of Arginusae ; condemnation of the 

Athenian generals. 

Siege of Acragas. 
405 The battle of -ffigospotami ; siege of Athens. 

Dionysius I becomes tyrant of Syracuse. 
404 End of the Peloponnesian War. 

404-371 The Supremacy of Sparta 
404-403 Rule of the " Thirty " at Athens. 
403 Return of Thrasybulus and the patriots. 

Lysander in trouble. 
401 Expedition of Cyrus. 

400 War between Lacedaemon and Persia begins. 



Events 361 

B.C. 

398-397 War between Lacedaemon and Elis. 

397-392 War between Dionysius I and Carthage. 

397 Accession of Agesiiaus. 

396 Agesiiaus takes command of the Lacedaemonian 

army in Asia Minor. 
395-387 The Corinthian War. 

394 Battle off Cnidus. 

393 The Long Walls rebuilt. 

390 Iphicrates destroys a battalion of heavy-armed 

Spartans. 
387 Treaty of Antalcidas. 

383-379 The Lacedaemonians wage war upon the Chalcidic 

Federation. 
383 The Lacedaemonians seize the citadel of 

Thebes. 
382-322 Life of Demosthenes. 

379 Fall of the Theban oligarcliy. 

377 Athenian maritime confederacy reorganized. 

371 Hellenic peace convention at Sparta. 

The battle of Leuctra ; end of the Spartan su- 
premacy. 
371-362 Thebes attempts to gain the leadership in Greece. 

371 Theban invasion of Peloponnese ; founding of 

Megalopolis and of Messene. 
370 Jason of Pherae assassinated. 

367-356 First tyranny of Dionysius IL 

362 The battle of Mantineia ; death of Epaminondas 

and decline of Thebes. 
359-336 Philip king of Macedon. 

357-355 The Social War. 

357-346 War between Athens and Macedon. 

356-346 The Sacred War. 

353 Onomarchus defeats Philip. 

352 Philip defeats and kills Onomarchus. 

352-349 Rapid development of Philip's power. 

351 The First Philippic of Demosthenes. 

350 (about) The Mausoleium built. 

349-348 The three Olynthiac Orations of Demosthenes. 

348 Fall of Chalcidice. 



362 Helps to the Study of Gi''eek History 



B.C. 

346 

346-345 

345-337 
343-338 
340 (about) 

338 



336 

335 

336-323 

334 

333 
332 
331 
330-325 

325 
323 
322 
301 
280 
280-274 

264-241 

221 

219-201 

216 

197 

168 
146 



The Peace of Philocrates ; destruction of the 

Phocian towns. 
Second tyranny of Dionysius II. 
The career of Timoleon. 
Struggle between Philip and Demosthenes. 
The battle of the Cremisus. 
The battle of Chaeroneia. 
King Archidamus of Sparta defeated and slain in 

Italy. 
Hellenic League under Macedon. 
Philip assassinated. 
Thebes destroyed. 
Reign of Alexander the Great. 
Alexander invades Asia ; battle on the Grani- 

cus. 
Battle of Issus. 

Siege of Tyre ; Alexandria founded. 
Battle of Arbela. 

Alexander's further conquests and explora- 
tions. 
Alexander's march through the Gedrosian desert. 
Death of Alexander. 

The Lamian War; death of Demosthenes. 
The battle of Ipsus. 
The Achaean League renewed. 
Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily; Magna Graecia falls 

under the power of Rome. 
The First Punic War ; Sicily falls under the power 

of Rome. 
Cleomenes of Sparta defeated by Antigonus of 

Macedon. 
The Second Punic War. 
The battle of Cannae. 
War between Rome and Macedon ; the battle of 

Cynoscephalas. 
The battle of Pydna. 
Macedon becomes a Roman province. 
The destruction of Corinth. 



Bibliography 363 

Bibliography 

For the convenience of purchasers, the titles of works on Greek 

history with the publishers' prices are here arranged, according 
to their relative importance, in " libraries." Considerable reduc- 
tions from these prices can often be obtained. 

I. The Smallest Library 

Herodotus, translated by Macaulay, 2 vols. New York; Mac- 

millan. ($4.50.) 
Homer, Iliad, translated by Lang, Leaf, and Myers. Macmillan. 

($1.50.) 
Homer, Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang. Macmillan. 

($1.50.) Or, translated by Palmer. Boston: Houghton, 

Mifflin. ($1.50, students' ed. $1.00.) 
Thucydides, translated by Jo wett. Boston: Lothrop. ($3.00.) 
Xenophon, translated by Dakyns, vols, i and ii. New York: 

Macmillan. ($5.00.) 
Holm, History of Greece, 4 vols. New York : Macmillan. 

($10.00.) 
Jebb, Greek Literature (primer) . New York : American Book 

Co. ($.35.) 
Kiepert, Atlas Antiquus. New York: Macmillan. ($1.50.) 

Later edition. Boston: Leach, Shewell, Sanborn. ($2.00.) 
Mahaffy, Survey of Greek Civilization. Meadville : Flood and 

Vincent. ($1.00.) 
Murray, History of Ancietit Greek Literature. New York : 

Appleton. ($1.50.) 
Tarbell, History of Greek A?'t. Meadville : Flood and Vincent. 

($1.00.) 
Tozer, Classical Geography (primer) . New York : American 

Book Co. ($.35-) 

n. A Good Library 
The books named above, and in addition, — 

^schylus, translated by Plumptre (verse). New York: Rout- 
ledge. ($1.50.) 

Aristophanes (select plays), translated by Frere. New York: 
Routledge. ($.40-) 



364 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

Aristotle, O71 the Constitution of Athens, translated by Kenyon. 
New York: Macmillan. ($1.10.) 

Euripides, translated by Coleridge (Bohn, prose), 2 vols. Mac- 
millan. ($3.00.) Single dramas, 14 vols. ($.30 each.) 

Pindar, translated by Myers. Macmillan. ($1.50.) 

Plutarch, Lives, translated by Stewart and Long (Bohn), 4 vols. 
Macmillan. ($4.00.) 

Sophocles, translated by Coleridge (Bohn, prose). Macmillan. 
($1.50.) Single dramas, 7 vols. ($.30 each.) Or, trans- 
lated by Plumptre (verse). New York : Routledge. ($1 .50.) 

Blumner, Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. New York : Cas- 
sell. ($2.00.) 

Cox, Tales of Ancient Greece. London: Kegan Paul. ($2.00.) 

Yx^^vi\2M, Story of Sicily . New York : Putnams. ($1.50.) 

Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Constitutional History. New 
York: Macmillan. ($1.25.) 

Marshall, Short History of Greek Philosophy . Macmillan. 
($1.10.) 

in. A Larger Library 
The books named above, and in addition, — 

Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, translated by Chinnock (Bohn). 
New York: Macmillan. ($1.50.) 

Demosthenes, Olyfithiacs, Philippics, etc., translated by Kennedy 
(Bohn). Macmillan. (|i.oo.) 

Demosthenes, On the Crowjt, translated by Kennedy (Bohn 
Select Library). Macmillan. ($.50.) 

Abbott, History of Greece, 2 vols. New York : Putnams. ($4.50.) 

Ahho\.i, Pericles . Putnams. ($1.50.) 

Curtius, History of Greece, 5 vols. New York: Scribners. 
($10.00.) 

Gayley, Classical Myths in English Literature. Boston : Ginn. 
($1.65.) 

Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture. New York : Macmillan. 
($2.50.) 

Gilbert, Handbook of Greek Constitutional Antiquities. Mac- 
millan. ($3.00.) 

Grote, History of Greece, 12 vols. New York : Harpers. ($18.00.) 

YiogSirih, Philip ajid Alexander of Macedon. New York: Scrib- 
ners. ($2.50.) 



Bibliography 365 

Jebb, Classical Greek Poetry. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin. 

($1.50.) 
Isl3\rdi^y, Alexander's Ejnpire. New York : Putnams. ($1.50.) 
MahafFy, Social Life iji Greece. New York : Macmillan. ($2.50.) 

IV. The following books also are valuable : — 

yEschylus, Suppliants^ translated by Morshead. London : Ke- 
gan Paul. (3^-. 6d.^ 

Aristophanes, translated by Hickie, 2 vols. (Bohn.) New York: 
Macmillan. ($3.00.) 

Demosthenes, translated by Kennedy, 5 vols. (Bohn.) Macmil- 
lan. ($5.00.) 

Herodotus, translated by Rawlinsonwith notes, 4 vols. New 
York : Scribners. ($24.00.) Text of the same, with notes 
abridged by A. J. Grant, 2 vols. Scribners. ($3-50.) 

Pausanias, translated by Shilleto, 2 vols. (Bohn.) New York: 
Macmillan. ($3.00.) Or, translated by Frazer, with ex- 
tensive commentary. Macmillan. ($30.00.) 

Plato, translated by Jowett (third edition), 5 vols. Oxford 
University Press. ($20.00.) Earlier edition of the same, 
4 vols. New York: Scribners. ($8.00.) 

Thucydides, translated by Jowett, with commentary, 2 vols. 
Oxford University Press. ($8.00.) 

Xenophon, translated by Dakyns, vol. iii, pt. i ($2.50) ; pt. ii 
($1.25); vol. iii (preparing). New York : Macmillan. 

AUcroft and Masom, Early Greciaji History ; The Making of 
Athens ,- The Peloponnesian War ; Sparta and Thebes ; The 
Decline of Hellas ; History of Sicily. New York : Hinds 
and Noble. ($.70 each.) 

V>%^tx, Charicles. New York : Longmans. ($1.25.) 

Botsford, Development of the Athejiian Constitution. Boston: 
Ginn. ($1.50.) 

Church., Story of the Iliad. New York : Macmillan. (Illustrated, 
$1.00; school edition, $.50.) Story of the Odyssey. Mac- 
millan. (Illustrated, $1.00; school edition, $.50.) Stories 
from the Greek Tragedians. Dodd, Mead. ($1.00.) 

Cox, Lives of the Greek Statesmen, 2 vols. New York : Har- 
pers. ($-75 each.) The Greeks and the Persians. New 
York: Scribners. ($1.00.) The Athenian Empire. Scrib- 
ners. ($1.00.) 



366 Helps to the Study of Greek History 

Cunningham, Western Civilizatio7i in its Economic Aspects. 

New York: Macmillan. ($1.50.) 
Curtius, Rise of the Macedonian Empire. New York : Scribners. 

($1.00.) 
Engelmann-Anderson, Pictorial Atlas to Homer''s Iliad and 

Odyssey. New York : Lemcke, Buechner. ($3.00.) 
Fowler, The City-State of the Greeks and Romans. New York : 

Macmillan. ($1.00.) 
Freeman, History of Federal Government in Greece and Italy. 

New York: Macmillan. ($3.75.) History of Sicily ^ /^Noh,. 

Oxford University Press. ($21.25.) 
Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History. New York : Put- 

nams. ($5.00.) 
Goodrich, Topics on Greek and Roman History. New York : 

Macmillan. ($.60.) 
Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles. New York : Scribners. 

($1.25.) 
Guerber, Myth^ of Greece and Rome. New York : American 

Book Co. ($1.50.) 
Harrison and Verrall, Mythology and Monuments of Ancient 

Athens. New York : Macmillan. ($4.00.) 
Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin. 

($1.00.) Wonder Book. Houghton, Mifflin. ($1.00.) 
MahafFy, History of Classical Greek Literature, 2 vols. New 

York : Macmillan. ($4.50.) Rambles and Studies in Greece. 

Macmillan. ($3.00.) Greek Life and Thought from the Age 

of Alexander to the Roman Cofiquest. Macmillan. ($3.50.) 
Mz-yor, Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. Macmillan. ($.90.) 
Om2iV\, History of Greece. New York: Longmans. ($1.50.) 
Sankey, Spartan and Theban Supremacies. New York : Scrib- 
ners. ($1.00.) 
'^yvsxoviA^, Studies in the Greek Poets, 2 vols. New York: Mac- 
millan. ($6.00.) 
Timayenis, History of Greece, 2 vols. New York: Appleton. 

($3-50.) 
Tsountas and Manatt, The Mycencsan Age. Boston : Houghton, 

Mifflin. ($6.00.) 
Warr, The Greek Epic. New York: E. & J. B. Young. ($1.25.) 
Whibley, Political Parties at Athens durijig the Peloponnesian 

War. New York : Macmillan. ($.90.) 



INDEX 



Academy. 73, 157, 291. 

A-car-na'ni-a, 277. 
A-chae'a, 31, 78, 167, 201, 281, 323. 
Achagan League, 323-325. 
Achaeans, 32, 78, 103, 143. 
A-chel-o'us, 225. 
Ach'e-ron, 221. 
A-chil'Ies, 10, 11, 14, 311. 
Ac'ra-gas, 35, 137, 141, 163, 240. 
A-crop'o-lis of Athens, 25, 45, 71, 73, 

132, 157, 179-183, 252. 
Admiral, 129, 132 ; Spartan (nau'- 

arch),235, 258. 
^-ge'an Sea, 8, 9, 30, 36, 136, 167, 

203, 207, 251, 300. 
^-gi'na, 48, 126, 183; submits to 

Persia, 118 ; war with Athens, 85, 

165, 167. 
^-gos-pot'a-mi, battle of, 235, 279. 
^-o'li-ans, 9, 23. 
^s'chy-lus, 133, 141, 158, 159-162, 

172, 186, 222, 304. 
A-e'tion, 68. 
^t'na. Mount, 246. 
^-to'li-a, 200, 293, 307, 322, 323. 
^-to'li-an League, 323, 325. 
Af'ri-ca, 136, 316. 
Ag-a-ris'te, 64. 
A-gath'o-cles, 248. 
A-ges-i-la'us, 257-262, 264, 268, 271, 

272, 287. 
A'gis, king of Lacedaemon, 214, 229, 

257- 
Ag-ri-gen'tum, see Acragas. 

Al-cse'us, 90. 

Al-ces'tis, 221. 

Al-ci-bi'a-des, 207-216, 225, 228, 229- 

234- 

Al-cin'o-us, 5, 20. 
Alc'man, 63, 90. 
Alc'me-on, 67. 



Alc-me-on'i-dae, 46, 80, 149. 

Al-ex-an'der, of Epeirus, 249; son of 
Amyntas, 299. 

Alexander the Great, 249, 262; em- 
pire of, 310-330; character of, 311, 
317; invades Asia, 312; founds 
Alexandria, 314 ; succeeds Darius, 
316; death of, 317; successors of, 
318. 

Al-ex-an'dri-a, 314, 320-322. 

Aliens, 209; resident, in Attica 
(metics), 178, 253. 

Alliances, 75, 192, 205, 206, 271, 304; 
see also Allies, Treaties. 

Allies, 113; of Athens, 145-153, 169- 
172, 178, 184, 194, 203, 204, 208, 300 ; 
of Lacedaemon, 85, 128, 135, 195, 
202, 203, 250-274 ; of Thebes, 24, 
166, 277-283; in Peloponnesian 
War, 194, 202, 203, 204. 

Al-phei'us River, 102. 

Al-yat'tes, 105. 

Am-bra'ci-ots, 195, 200. 

America, 36. 

Am'mon, oracle of, 256, 314. 

Am-om-phar'e-tus, 136. 

Am-phic'ty-on-y, see Leagues, reli- 
gious. 

Am-phi-lo'chi-ans, 194. 

Am-phi'on, 24. 

Am-phip'o-lis, 203, 204, 300. 

A-myn'tas, king of Macedon, 299. 

A-nab'a-sis of Xenophon, 262. 

A-na'cre-on, 74. 

An-ax-ag'o-ras, 187, 188. 

A-nax'i-las, tyrant of Rhegium, 137. 

An'dro-cles, 229, 230. 

An-tal'ci-das, treaty of. 265, 272, 280. 

An-tig'o-nus, successor of Alexander, 
318 ; regent of Macedon, 325, 

An'ti-och, 319. 



367 



368 



Index 



An-ti'o-chus (an Athenian), 233. 

An'ti-phon, 230, 232, 286, 289. 

Aph-ro-di'te of Cnidus, 289, 294. 

A-pol'lo, Phoebus, 13, 219 ; father of 
Ion, 21 ; shrines of, 22, 47, 62, 77, 
80, 246, 307; Delian, 22, 77, 140, 
152; Delphic, 39, 76, 99-101, 106, 
109, 127, 131, 172, 184, 257, 301, 306, 
307 ; Belvedere, 100, 295. 

A-ra'bi-a, 316. 

Ar'al Sea, i. 

A-ra'tus, 323-325. 

Ar-be'la, battle of, 314. 

Arbitration, 114, 221, 266. 

Ar-ca'di-a, 77, 149, 276. 

Archaeology, value of, for history, 
294. 

Ar-chi-da'mus, grandson of Leo- 
tychidas, 148, 154, 194, 196; son 
of Agesilaus, 248. 

Ar-chil'o-chus, 89. 

Architects, 74, 141, 180. 

Architecture, 164, 179-184, 293-295. 

Archons, Archonship, at Athens, 42, 
43. 5°. 54-70. 75, 81, 82, 124, 173. 

A-re-op'a-gus, council of, 47, 54, 124, 

149. 155. 173- 

Ar-gi-nu'sse, battle of, 234. 

Ar'go-lis, Ar'gos, 7, 24, 27, 28, 29, 32, 
66, 128, 149, 164, 167, 183, 323; 
medizes, 118; in art, 159; peace 
with Sparta, 168 ; humbled, 268. 

A-ri'on, 69. 

Ar-is-tag'o-ras, 111-113. 

Ar-is-tei'des, 124-126, 136, 144, 146, 
148, 151, 155, 164. 

Aristocracy, Aristocrats, 15, 24, 136, 
178, 253 ; knightly, at Athens, 43. 

Ar-is-to-de'mus, 61. 

Ar-is-toph'a-nes, 206, 210, 220, 222. 

Ar'is-tot-le, 311, 316. 

Armies, standing, 29, 68; heavy- 
armed, 77; of Xerxes, 127; of 
Dionysius I, 241 ; mercenary, 264 ; 
of Philip, 305, 

Armor, 28, 115, 129, 265, 299, 305. 

Art, Mycenaean, 4-8; at Sicyon, 66; 
under the tyrants, 67, 74 ; in Sicily, 
141 ; of the Acropolis, 180-183 ; 
literary, 186, see also Literature; 
patronized by Pericles, 187; de- 



cline in Athens, 292; serves the 
individual, 293. 

Ar-ta-pher'nes, 113, 120, 

Ar-tax-erx'es, 261, 266, 280. 

Ar'te-mis, 23, 105, 148, 256. 

Ar-te-mis'i-um, battle of, 129, 

Artisans in Attica, 74. 

Asia, Asiatics, 109, 132, 261, 312, 315. 

Asia Minor, colonization of, 8; im- 
ports from, 13 ; civilization of, 29 ; 
decline of, 36, 115 ; architecture of, 
181 ; war with Persia, 261. 

Asiatic Greeks, 8-19, 105-119, 133, 
262 ; character of, 106 ; Cyrus con- 
quers, 108; yielded to Persia, 266^ 
and Alexander, 312 ; see word 
above. 

A-so'pus River, 66. 

As-pa'si-a, 188. 

As'pho-del, 16. 

Assembly, in Epic Age, 14, 15 ; Lo- 
crian, 32; Athenian, 43, 44, 54, 82, 
126, 176, 177, 184, 192, 201, 202, 
209 ; Lacedaemonian, 61, 193 ; 
Theban, 300; ^tolian, 323. 

As-syr'i-a, 38. 

A-the'na, 13, 26, 73, 150, 157, 169, 
179-183. 

Ath'ens, early history of, 25-27, 29, 
37, 41-50; under Solon, 50-56; 
under the Pisistratidae, 70-77 ; in 
time of Cleisthenes, 80-86; and 
the Ionic Revolt, 113, 115; in the 
war with Persia, 120-136 ; fortifi- 
cation of, 143-145 ; and the Delian 
Confederacy, 145-153 ; and Sparta, 
153-157; under Cimon, 157-162; 
under Pericles, 164-189; in Pelo- 
ponnesian War, 190-238; New 
Learning in, 217-227 ; under the 
Thirty, 251-255; in Corinthian 
War, 264; new confederacy of, 
271 ; ally of Sparta, 278, 281 ; 
condition of, in fourth century, 
284-286; literature of, in fourth 
century, 286-293; wars of, with 
Macedon, 300-306, 308, (Lamian) 
322 ; submits to Macedon, 322. 

Athlete, Athletics, 73, 102, 220. 

A'thos, Mount, 118; Isthmus of, 127. 

At'las, 93, 94. 



Index 



369 



A-tos'sa, 116, 133. 

A'treus, treasury of, 7, 8. 

At'ti-ca, 109, 178 ; colonies of, 8 ; 
early history of, 25-29; local fac- 
tions of, 45, 70; commerce and 
industries of, 49; see Athens. 

Atticans become Athenians, 27. 

Attic-Ionic race, 9, 22. 

Attic school of art, 295. 

Bab'y-lon, Bab-y-lo'ni-a, 107, 261, 314, 
316. 

Bac'chus, 206 ; see Dionysus. 

Bac-chyl'i-des, 91, 92. 

Bac'tri-a, 316. 

Bas-i-leus', see King. 

Better class, 197, 227, 254 ; see Aris- 
tocracy. 

Bi'as, 109. 

Bible, translated into Greek, 321. 

Bibliography, general, 362; special, 
see ends of chapters. 

Black Sea (Euxine), i, 36, 37, 52,75, 
no, 167, 261. 

Boe'o-tarchs, 270. 

Boe-o'ti-a, 23, 29, 76, 87, 88, 134, 166, 
203, 266, 281, 301. 

Boeotians, 75, 205, 273. 

Bos'po-rus, 36. 

Bras'i-das, 203-205. 

Bridge of boats, no, 127. 

British Museum, 181. 

Brotherhoods (phratries), 21, 39. 

Brut'ti-ans, 246, 249. 

Bu-ceph'a-lus, 311. 

By-zan'ti-um, 37, 171, 301, 329; siege 
of, 146. 

Cad-mei'a, 268-270. 
Cad'mus, 24. 
Cal-lib'i-us, 252. 
Cal-lic'ra-tes, 180. 
Cal-li-crat'i-das, 234. 
Cal-lim'a-chus, 158. 
Cal-li'nus, 89. 
Cal-Iip'pus, 245. 
Cam-a-ri'na, 241. 
Cam-by'ses, no. 
Cam-pa'ni-a, 142. 
Can'nae, 276, 325. 
Capitoline Museum, 294. 

2B 



Captives, treatment of, 96, 196, 199, 
215- 236. 

Ca'ri-a, 38, 153, 167, 294. 

Car-nei'a, 129, 221. 

Car'thage, 35, 53, 128, 171, 325 ; wars 
of, with Greece, 136-139, 239-244. 

Ca-ry'a-tids, 182. 

Caspian Sea, i. 

Cas-san'der, 318. 

Caste, Athenians a closed, 178 ; in 
Plato's RepubliCy 292. 

Cat'a-na, 213. 

Cavalry, 43, 105, 274, 315. 

Ce-cro'pi-a, 25. 

Ce'crops, myth of, 25, 131. 

Census, 44 ; Solon's, 53. 

Ce'os, 90. 

Ceph'a-lus, 288. 

Ceph-i-sod'o-tus, 285, 294. 

Ce-phi'sus, 25. 

Cer-a-mei'cus, 158. 

Chae-ro-nei'a, battle of, 308. 

Chal-cid'i-ce, 36, 52, 193, 203, 205, 
209, 266-268, 300, 302, 305. 

Chal-cid'ic League, 266-268, 300. 

Chal'cis, 33, 84; colonies of, 36; 
commerce of, 49. 

Cha'ron, 270. 

Chei-ris'o-phus, 261. 

Cher-so-nese', 76, no, 113, 116. 

Chiefs of tribes, i, 3, 13. 

Chi'os, 8, 169, 301 ; revolt of, 228. 

Chorus, i86, 222, 275. 

Christianity, 320. 

Cic'e-ro, 290. 

Ci-li'ci-a, 40, 312. 

Cim-mer'i-ans, 89. 

Ci'mon, 123, 146, 152, 153. 155, 180, 
183,200; Age of, 140-162; leader 
of conservatives, 148 ; and Delian 
Confederacy, 152; Hellenic ideal 
of, 155, 205 ; and Pericles, 156, 168 ; 
Ostracism of, 157, 164, 166 ; patron- 
age of culture, 157-162, 164. 

Cin'a-don, 258-261. 

Cir'rha, 66. 

Citadel, see Acropolis, Cadmeia. 

Ci-thre'ron, 132. 

Citizenship, Athenian, 176-179; law 
restricting, 178, 188, 256. 

City-state, 20, 21, 283, 297, 323. 



370 



hidex 



Civilization, Mycenaean, 4-8 ; Epic, 
9-19 ; from Homer to the war 
with Persia, 87-104 ; of the Asiatic 
Greeks, 9-19, 105, 140 ; of Greeks 
and Asiatics contrasted, 115 ; influ- 
enced by war with Persia, 139 ; in 
Italy and Sicily, 140-142; culmi- 
nates in Athens, 157-162, 179-189, 
286-296 ; extends over Greece, 297 ; 
extends over western Asia and 
western Europe, 319, 327 ; in Alex- 
andria, 320. 

Cla-zom'e-nae, 187, 266. 

Cle-ar'i-das, 205. 

Cleisth'e-nes, of Sicyon, 64-67, 68 ; of 
Athens, 65, 80-84. 

Cle-om'bro-tus, 274. 

Cle-om'e-nes, king of Lacedaemon, 
earlier, 81, 84, 112, 113; later, 324, 

325. 

Cle'on, 197-204. 

Cle'o-phon, 233, 234, 238. 

Clouds of Aristophanes, 223. 

Cni'dus, 109, 271, 294; battle off, 262. 

Coasts of Greece, 3, 27. 

Co-cy'tus, 221. 

Co'drus, myth of, 41, 50. 

Colonies, earhest, 8-17 ; in western 
Greece, 30-36; in Chalcidice, on 
the Hellespont and the Black Sea, 
36-38 ; in Cyprus and Egypt, 38 ; 
organization of, 39; of Athens, 
170, 271 ; of Corinth, 69 ; of Alex- 
ander, 317 ; of Seleucus, 319. 

CoFo-phon, 95, 97. 

Comedy, 141, 286. 

Commerce, 43, 48, 49, 52, 106. 

Confederacy, Athenian Maritime, 
270; Delian, see Delian. 

Congress, Peloponnesian, 85, 194, 
237 ; at Athens, 271 ; Hellenic, 
310. 

Co'non, 236, 262. 

Conservatives in Athens, 124, 148, 
202, 204. 

Con-stan-ti-no'ple, 37. 

Constitution, written, for Athens, 230 ; 
" of the fathers," 252 ; see Govern- 
ment. 

Con'sul, 326. 

Convention, peace, 272, 280. 



Co'rax of Syracuse, 218. 

Cor-cy'ra, 128, 211; and Corinth, 
192; sedition in, 199. 

Cor'inth, 29, 78, 84, 164, 165, 183, 191, 
205, 246; early greatness of, 34; 
founds Potidaea, 36 ; relations with 
Megara, 37 ; sea power of, 68 ; and 
Corcyra, 192; and Potidaea, 193; 
and Sparta, 263, 268 ; destroyed, 

327. 

Corinthian Gulf, 32, 164, 167,- 198, 

Corinthian War, 263-265. 

Cos, 301. 

Council, 109, 126, 127, 323 ; in Epic 
Age, 13, 15 ; deprives king of 
power, 42; of Four Hundred and 
One, 44 ; of Areopagus, 48, 82, 124, 
149; of Four Hundred, 54, 81, 82; 
Spartan, 56, 62 ; of Five Hundred, 
82, 174, 176, 184, 252; Amphicty- 
onic, 99, 108, 298, 301, 310; Pelo- 
ponnesian, 202. 

Court, popular supreme (Heliaea), 
54, 82, 173-175, 219 ; local, 170 ; of 
inquiry, 211. 

Craftsmen in Epic Age, 13. 

Crete, 56. 

Cri-mi'sus River, battle of the, 247. 

Cri'sa, 66. 

Crit'i-as, 225, 251-254. 

Croe'sus, 55, 105-107, no. 

Cro'ton, 32, 95, 143, 172. 

Culture, see Civilization. 

Cu'mae, 33 ; battle off, 142. 

Cu-nax'a, battle of, 261. 

Cur'ti-us, 181. 

Cyc'la-des, colonization of, 8. 

Cy-clo'pes, 20, 30. 

Cy'lon, conspiracy of, 45, 65, 67. 

Cyn-os-ceph'a-lae, battle of, 326. 

Cy-nu'ri-a, 78, 108. 

Cy'prus, 38, 55, 168, 236, 266. 

Cyp-sel'i-dae, 68-70, 117. 

Cyp'se-lus, 69. 

Cy'rus, king of Persia, 107-110, 116; 
the Younger, 233, 235, 256, 261, 287. 

Cy-the'ra, 78, 202, 206. 

Cyz'i-cus, battle of, 233. 

Da-ma'si-as, 70. 
Danube, no. 



Index 



371 



Da-ri'us I, 110-119, 114, 116, 118, 
126, 127 ; Nothus, 212, 233 ; Codo- 
mannus, war of, with Alexander, 
312-316. 

Da'tis, 120. 

Debts, abolition of, in Athens, 51. 

Dec'arch-ies, 251. 

Dec-el-ei'a, 214. 

Delian Confederacy, old religious 
league, 22, 77; political under 
Athens, 145, 151-154, 338-341; 
changes to Athenian empire, 
169. 

De'li-um, 204; battle of, 203, 273. 

De'los, 76; festival in, 22; treasury 
of, 169; see Delian Confederacy, 

Del'phi, 29, 56, 99, loi, 130, 298, 301, 

307- 

Delphic Amphictyony, see Amphic- 
tyony, 

Del-phin'i-um, 47. 

Demes, see Townships. 

De-me'ter, 92, 97, 184, 246, 

Democracy, 55, 112, 206; in western 
Greece, 142 ; in Peloponnese, 149 ; 
in Athens, 154, 178, 255 ; in Thebes, 
270 ; in cities conquered by Alex- 
ander, 312. 

Democrats, 188, 208, 230, 

De-mos'then-es, the general, 200-202, 
215 ; the orator, 303, 307, 322. 

De'mus, 197. 

Despot, III, 112; see Tyrant. 

Dialectic, 186. 

Dialogues, 186; of Plato, 291. 

Di-cas-te'ri-um, see Court. 

Di-od'o-tus, 198. 

Di'on, 245. 

Di-o-nys'i-us I, 241-245, 269, 289; 
II, 245-247. 

Di-o-ny'sus, 69, 72, 75, 97, 185, 206. 

Diplomacy, Athenian, 75. 

Dip'y-lon Gate, 158. 

Dis-cob'o-lus of Myron, 159. 

Do-do'na, oracle of, 99. 

Do-lon'ci, 76. 

Do'ri-ans, 9, 32, 34, 41; leagues of, 
23; rulers of, 28 ; myth of invasion, 
28, 61 ; tribes of, 66 ; Asiatic, 109. 

Doric style of architecture, 181. 

Do'ris, 28, 301. 



Dra'co, 47, 96; Solon improves on, 

52. 
Drama, germ of, 69 ; democratic, 75 ; 

historical, 133 ; at Athens, 159-162, 

185, 220-223. 
Du-ce'ti-us, 163. 

Education, Spartan, 57-59; under 
Pericles, 179; New Learning, 217- 
227 ; in Alexandria, 320. 

E'gypt, 107, 110, 127, 314; Athenian 
expedition to, 165, 167 ; Alexander 
invades, 314; under Ptolemies, 
320. 

Ei-re'ne and Plu'tus, 285. 

El-a-tei'a, 308. 

E'le-a, 95. 

Eleatic school of philosophy, 95, 186. 

Elegy, 89. 

El-eu-sin'i-an mysteries, 184, 211. 

E-leu'sis, 84, 97, 184, 270. 

E'lis, 78, 102, 149, 206, 287. 

El-pi-ni'ce, 168. 

E-lys'i-um, 98. 

Empires, 106, no; Persian, 107, 112, 
116; Lydian, 105-107, 116; Athe- 
nian maritime, 126, 169-172, 177, 
184, 191, 194, 203, 338-343; Alex- 
ander's, 310-330; Seleucid, 320. 

Ep-am-i-non'das, 269-283; in peace 
convention, 272 ; invades Laconia, 
277 ; aids Messenians, 278 ; as ad- 
miral, 280; last invasion of Pelo- 
ponnese, 281. 

E-pei'rus, 30, 99, 103, 248, 297, 307, 
310. 

Eph'e-sus, 95, 105, 113, 256, 312. 

Eph-i-al'tes, 154-156, 164. 

Eph'ors, 56, 61, 128, 135, 143, 150, 
237. 253. 256, 258, 275, 324. 

Epic Age, 11-17; poetry, 105. 

Ep-i-char'mus, 141. 

Ep-i-dam'nus, 192. 

Ep-i-dau'rus, theatre at, 293. 

Er-a-tos'the-nes. 289. 

Er-ech-thei'um, 181. 

E-rech'theus, 181. 

E-re'tri-a, 49, 113, 120. 

Ethics, 219, 224, 

E-thi-o'pi-n, 316. 

E^tru'ri-a, 53, 139, 14a. 



372 



hzdex 



Eu-boe'a, 8, 33, 52, 167, 231 ; revolt 

of, 168. 
Eu-phra'tes River, 314, 327. 
Eu-rip'i-des, 220-222, 286. 
Eu-ro'pa, 24. 
Europe, 32, 36, 126, 132, 135, 136, 315, 

316. 
Eu-ro'tas River, 28, 57, 58. 
Eu-ry-bi'a-des, 129. 
Eu-rym'e-don, 157 ; battle of, 153. 
Eu-rys'theus, 27. 
Euxine, see Black Sea. 
Events in chronological order, 355- 

362. 
Explorer in the West, 30. 

Factions, local, in Attica, 45, 70. 
Family, 11, 12, 96. 

Federation, see Confederacy, League. 
Fisheries, purple, 33; in Hellespont, 

36, 52. 
Flam-i-ni'nus, 325. 
Fleet, see Navy. 
Four Hundred, rule of, at Athens, 

231. 
Franchise, Hmited at Athens, 178, 

209, 253, 256, 323. 
Funeral oration of Pericles, 187, 196. 
Fury, 46, 161. 

Games, great national, 101-103 \ Isth- 
mian, 247; Pythian, 298. 

Ge-dro'si-an Desert, 316. 

Ge'la, 136, 241. 

Ge'lon, 128, 136-141. 

Generals, 54, 83, 124, 176-178, 203; 
at Marathon, 121 ; at Plataea, 
136; in Sicilian expedition, 212, 
217; condemned after battle of 
Arginusae, 235 ; Syracusan, 241 ; 
Theban, 299; of Alexander, 318. 

Gentlemen, rule of, 227. 

Ge-ru'si-a, 62. 

Gods, see Religion. 

Gold, 105, 112, 301. 

Gor'gi-as, 290. 

Gor'go, 113. 

Government in the Epic Age, 13-15 ; 
Athenian, 47, 52-55, 75, 125, 172- 
I79i 231, 252, 322; Lacedaemonian, 
61, 256-258. 



Governor, military (Harmost), 251, 

257. 263. 
Grammarians, 321. 
Gra-ni'cus, battle of the, 312. 
Greece (Hellas), primitive condition 

of, 2; defined, 9; western, 36, 208, 

249; continental, 75, 136, 263; 

Asiatic, 105 ; disunion of, 118 ; 

Xerxes in, 130; European, 181; 

eastern, 250 ; under Macedon, 310 ; 

under Rome, 327. - 
Greek history, helps to the study of, 

331-366 ; periods of, 331-337 ; value 

of. 327-329- 

Greeks, origin of, i ; height of civili- 
zation, 40; Asiatic, 105, 109, 113; 
contrasted with Orientals, 115, 122; 
union of, 127; western, 212; in 
Alexandria, 321 ; after Alexander, 
322 ; achievements of, 327-329. 

Guests in the Epic Age, 12. 

Gy-lip'pus, 213. 

Gym-no-pae'di-se, 275. 

Ha'des, 92, 98, 221 ; realm of, 16, 20. 

Ha'dri-an, 74. 

Hal-i-car-nas'sus, 185, 294. 

Ha'lys River, 107. 

Ha-miKcar, 138, 239. 

Han'ni-bal, king of Carthage, 239; 
general of Carthage, 325. 

Har'most, see Governor. 

Har'pa-gus, 108, 109, no. 

Hearth, sacred, 39. 

Hec-a-tae'us, in, 112. 

Hec-a-tom'pe-don, 73. 

Hec-a-tom'pe-dos, 180. 

Helen of Argos, 12. 

Hel-i-ae'a, see Court, popular su- 
preme. 

He'li-os, 180. 

HeKlas, see Greece. 

Hel-le'nes, origin of name, 103; see 
Greeks. 

Hellenic, 37; language, 38, 320; 
states, 127 ; civilization, 262 ; peace 
convention, 280 ; state system, 297 ; 
cities, 298; freedom, end of, 327. 

Hel-len'i-ca of Xenophon, 287. 

Hellenic Leagues, 308, 310, 322. 

Hel'les-pont, 36, 75, 116, 127, 302. 



Index 



373 



He'lots, 59, ']'], 150, 154, 164, 201, 203, 

251, 258, 278. 
Helps to the study of Greek history, 

331-366. 
He-phaes'tus, 5, 183. 
He'ra, 27 ; temple of, 294. 
Her-a-clei'dae, 28. 
Her-a-clei'tus, 95, 217, 219. 
Her'a-cles, 27 ; Pillars of, 40. 
He-rae'a, 256. 
Heralds of Darius in Greece, 118, 

127. 
Herbaria in Alexandria, 320. 
Her'mae, mutilation of, 210. 
Her'mes of Praxiteles, 294. 
Her-moc'ra-tes, 229. 
He-rod'o-tus, 55, 85, iii, 127, 136, 

185, 226, 286. 
Hes'i-od, 87-89. 
Hic'e-tas, 246. 
Hi'e-ron, 137, 157, 140-142. 
Highlands of Macedon, 299. 
Him'e-ra, battle of, 137; siege of, 

240. 
Hi-mil'con, 240, 242. 
Hip-par'chus, 71. 
Hip'pi-as, 71, 80, 85, 113, 121. 
Hip-po-clei'des, 65. 
His-ti-3e'us, no, in. 
Historians, see Herodotus, Thucyd- 

ides, Xenophon ; the modern, 226. 
Holland, 299. 
Holy Month, 22. 

Homer, 10-19, 28, 87, 96-98, 185, 320. 
Homicide, in the Epic Age, 14 ; laws 

of, 47. 
Hoplites, see Infantry, heavy-armed. 
Hy-a-cin'thi-a, 135. 
Hy-met'tus, Mount, 72, 329. 
Hy-per'bo-lus, 206, 207. 
Hy-per-ei'a, 20. 
Hyph'a-sis River, 316. 

Iambic poetry, 89, 
I-a-pyg'i-a, 212. 
Ic-ti'nus, 180. 
Iliad, 10, 311. 
I-lis'sus River, 73, 225. 
Il-lyr'i-ans, 300. 
Im'bros, 266. 
Imperiahsm of Athens, 185. 



In'di-a, 292, 316. 

Inductive reasoning, 224. 

In'dus, 316. 

Industries, in the Epic Age, 12, 13 ; 
in Draco's time, 48, 49 ; in Solon's 
time, 52, 53 ; in fourth century, 
286 ; in Seleucid empire, 320. 

Infantry, heavy-armed, Athenian, 43- 
45, 83, 121 ; Lacedaemonian, 28, 
57, 61 ; Theban, 273 ; Macedo- 
nian, 305 ; light-armed, 264. 

Inferiors in Lacedaemon, 258. 

I'on, 21. 

I-o'ni-a, colonization of, 9 ; civiliza- 
tion of, 10, 89, 105, 140 ; twelve 
cities of, 22; conquered by Persia, 
107-110; revolt of, 111-115, 337; 
deterioration of, 115 ; in Delian 
Confederacy, 145-153. 

Ionian Sea, 30, 212; school of phi- 
losophy, 95. 

Ionic style of architecture, 181. 

I-phic'ra-tes, 264, 279, 305. 

Ip'sus, battle of, 318. 

I-sae'us, 303. 

I-sag'o-ras, 80, 84. 

I-soc'ra-tes, 251, 289, 304. 

Is'sus, battle of, 312. 

Isthmian Wall, 134; games, loi, 326. 

Isthmus, of Corintii, loi, 128; of 
Athos, 127. 

Italy, 143, 164, 171 ; colonization of, 
30-36; end of freedom in, 239- 
249. 

I-tho'me, Mount, 154, 164, 278. 

Ja'son, tyrant of Pherae, 298, 305. 

Jax-ar'tes River, 316. 

Je-ru'sa-lem, attempt to Hellenize, 

326. 
Jews, 314, 320, 326. 
Jove, 132; see Zeus. 
Jurors, Jury, see Court. 

King (Basileus), the Mycenaean, 4; 
in the Epic Age, 14, 15 ; Argive, 
29; decennial at Athens, 42; be- 
comes mere priest at Athens, 43 ; 
Lacedaemonian, 61, 113, 258; of 
Dolonci, 76; Persian, no, 230; 
Macedonian, 327. 



374 



Index 



Kingdoms, earliest Greek, 3, 4; 
formed from Alexander's empire, 

319- 
Knightly aristocracy at Athens, 43. 
Knights, see Cavalry. 

Lab'da, 68. 

La-bo'tas, 56. 

Lac-e-dae'mon, early history, 27-29, 
56-63 ; in Peloponnesian League, 
77-86; head of Greece, 118, 266; 
in war with Persia, 121, 127-136; 
attempts to govern Athens, 143- 
145 ; yields naval leadership to 
Athens, 145, 146; and Themisto- 
cles, 147-149 ; at war with Athens, 
190-237; at war with Persia, 262- 
264 ; supremacy of, in Greece, 250- 
274 ; climax of prosperity, 268 ; 
ruined, 276 ; revival under Cleom- 
enes, 324. 

La-co'ni-a, see Lacedaemon. 

La'de, battle off, 114. 

La-er'tes, estate of, 12. 

Lam'a-chus, 210, 212, 213. 

La'mi-a, Lamian War, 322. 

Lamp'sa-cus, 236. 

Lau-rei'um, 125. 

Law, Lacedaemonian, 130 ; Hellenic, 
208; and the sophists, 220; inter- 
state, 271 ; against runaways, 276 ; 
Athenian, 288. 

Law-making at Athens, 83, 174. 

Laws of Draco, 46-48 ; of Solon, 

51-56. 

Leagues, Achaean, 323; ^tolian, 
323 ; Arcadian, 277 ; Athenian 
maritime (second), 271; Boeotian, 
24, 166, 195 ; Chalcidic, 266-268 ; 
Delian, 22, -jt, 145-153, 338-341; 
Delphic, 66, 80, 148 ; Hellenic, 
308, 310, 322; Pan-Ionian, 22, 108, 
109; Peloponnesian, 77-80, 118, 
149, 151, 191, 195; political, 23; 
religious (amphictyonic), 21, 22, 
62, 99, 100, 106 ; Samnite, 164. 

Legislation, see Law-making. 

Legislators (Thesmothetae, nomoth- 
etoe), 43, 47, 50, 83. 

Lem'nos, 266. 

Le-o-bo'tes, 149. 



Le'on, Athenian ambassador, 28a 

Le-on'i-das, 128. 

Le-on-ti'a-des, 270. 

Le-on-ti'ni, 194, 208, 246. 

Le-os'the-nes, 322. 
i Le-o-tych'i-das, king of Lacedaemon, 
147; rightful heir of Agis, 257. 

Les'bos, 92, 169 ; revolt of, 198. 

Le'to, 23. 

Leuc'tra, battle of, 273. 

Library in Alexandria, 320. 

Lib'y-a, 256. 

Libyan Desert, 40, 314. 

Lil-y-bae'um, 248. 

Literature, Epic, 10; Spartan, 62; 
under the Cypselidae, 69 ; under 
the Pisistratidae, 74 ; of the Lyric 
Age, 87-96; in Ionia, 105; in Age 
of Cimon, 140-142, 159-162; in 
Age of Pericles, 185-187 ; New 
Learning, 217-227 ; in fourth cen- 
tury, 286-292 ; in Alexandria, 321. 

Lo'cri, Locrians, 32, 143. 

Lo'cris, 167, 168, 301. 

Long Walls, 165, 237, 263. 

Lowland of Macedon, 299. 

Lu-ca'ni-ans, 243, 246, 249. 

Ly-cam'bes, 89. 

Ly-cei'um, 73. 

Lyc'i-a, 153. 

Ly-cur'gus, myth of, 56, 59. 

Lyd'i-a, 36, 55, 105, 106, 107, no; 
empire of, 116. 

Lyric poetry, 50, 88-92, 105, 222; 
Lyric Age, 88. 

Ly-san'der, 233, 235, 238, 254, 261; 
holds the destiny of Greece, 250; 
influence at Sparta and in the em- 
pire, 256-258 ; death of, 264. 

Ly-san'dri-a, 256. 

Lys'i-as, 244, 253, 288, 304. 

Ly-sim'a-chus, 318. 

Mac'ca-bees, 326. 

Mac'e-don, 116-118, 203, 267; rise 
of, 297-309; under Alexander, 312- 
330 ; and Greece, 322 ; allies her- 
self with Hannibal, 325 ; becomes 
a Roman province, 327. 

Mae-an'der River, 36. 

Mag'na Grae'ci-a, 35, 243, 248. 



Index 



375 



Ma'go, 137. 

Man-ti-nei'a, 206, 266, 277 ; first bat- 
tle of, 207; second battle of, 281, 
283. 

Mar'a-thon, battle of, 120-122, 127, j 
158, 315 ; spoils of, 183. 

Marble quarries, 53. 

Mar-do'ni-us, 118, 134. 

Market-place, 108, 259, 300. 

Mau-so-lei'um, 294. 

Mau-so'lus, king of Caria, 294. 

Medes, see Persians. 

Median Empire, 107. 

Mediterranean, 38, 262, 314. 

Me'don, 42. 

Me-don'ti-dae, 42. 

Meg-a-ba'zus, 116. 

Meg'a-cles I, 46; II, 65, 67. 

Meg-a-lop'o-lis, 277. 

Meg'a-ra, 37, 45, 50, 75, 79, 168, 193, 
203, 205. 

Meg'a-ris, 164. 

Me-le-a'ger, 293. 

Me'los, 207. 

Memoirs of Socrates, 287. 

Mercenaries, 261, 265, 301. 

Mess, Spartan (Syssitia), 58, 

Mes-se'ne, in Sicily, 137, 242; in 
Messenia, 278. 

Mes-se'ni-a, 28, 57, 'j'] ; revolt of, 154, 
278. 

Messenian Wars, 57, 62, 154, 278. 

Metaphysics, 311. 

Me-thym'na, 198. 

Met'ics, see Aliens, resident. 

Middle class at Athens, 252. 

Migration of the primitive Greek 
tribes, 2 ; myth of the Dorian, 
28. 

Mi-le'sians, 36, 108. 

Mi-le'tus, 36, 94, 105, 111-113; capt- 
ure of, 114. 

Mil-ti'a-des I, 76; II, 76, no, 116, 
121-123, 158. 

Mining in Chalcidice, 36. 

Minstrel, see Poet. 

Mnes'i-cles, 182. 

Monarch, see King. 

Monarchy, decline of the early, 15 ; 
return of, 294 ; see King. 

Money, 49, 51, 106, 125. 



Morals, improvement in, 96 ; of par- 
ties, 200 ; of Euripides, 221 ; of 
Spartans, 256. 

Mum'mi-us, 327. 

Mu-nych'i-a, 322. 

Muses, 221, 320. 

Museum in Athens, 7 ; in Alexan- 
dria, 320. 

Music, contests in, 184. 

Myc'a-le, 22; battle of, 136, 145. 

My-ce'nae, 7. 

Mycenaean Age, 7-9, 294. 

My'ron, 159. 

My-ron'i-des, 167. 

Mysteries, Orphic and Eleusinian, 97. 

Myt-i-le'ne, revolt of, 198. 

Naples, Bay of, 33. 

Napoleon, 273, 298. 

Nau'arch, see Admiral. 

Nau'crar-ies, see Townships. 

Nau'cra-tis, 38. 

Nau-pac'tus, 164, 167. 

Nau-sic'a-a, 13. 

Nau-sith'o-iis, 20. 

Navy, 75, no, 126, 128, 177; Athe- 
nian, 117, 133, 136, 201; Asiatic, 
134, 210; Syracusan, 214; of Dio- 
nysius I, 241 ; of Agesilaus, 262 ; 
Phoenician, 262, 313 ; Greek, coop- 
erates with Persia, 313; of Alex- 
ander, 316. 

Nax'os, III, 153. 

Ne-ap'o-lis, 194. 

Ne-ar'chus, 316. 

Ne'me-a, loi. 

Ne-o-bu'le, 89. 

New Learning, 217-227, 252. 

Nic'i-as, 207, 209, 212 ; leader of con- 
servatives, 202 ; captures Cythera, 
202 ; Peace of, 204 ; at Syracuse, 
214; death of, 215. 

Nile River, 10, 38, 165, 312, 314. 

Ni-sse'a, 164, i68, 201, 203. 

Nobles, in Epic Age, 12, 13, 42 ; 
founders of citieS; 39; publish laws, 
47; of Sparta, 61; Athenian, 47, 
79, 80, 83; Boeotian, 88; in Mace- 
donian army, 305. 

No-moth'e-tre, see Legislators. 

Nymphs, 31, 225. 



376 



Index 



Observatories in Alexandria, 320. 

O-ce'a-nus, streams of, 16. 

Occupations in Epic Age, 12. 

Ode, the choral, 90. 

O-dei'um, 183. 

O-dys'seus, 5, 12. 

Od'ys-sey, composition of, 11. 

CEd'i-pus Ty-ran'nus, 186. 

CE-noph'y-ta, battle of, 167. 

Offices, annual, at Athens, 42; under 
Solon, 54. 

Old Testament, translated into Greek, 
321. 

Ol'i-garchs, 75, 166, 168, 170, 188, 191, 
198, 312; conspiracy of, at Athens, 
229-232 ; in time of Lysander, 251 ; 
Samian, 256. 

Ol'i-gar-chy, 15, 79, 206, 251, 269; 
fails at Athens, 255 ; fall of Theban, 
270. 

O-lym'pi-a, 69, loi, 294; oracle at, 
62. 

O-lym'pi-as, 310. 

Olympic games, 45, 64, 101-103, 129 ; 
Olympic runner, 311. 

O-lym-pi-ei'um, 73. 

O-lym'pus, Mount, 92. 

0-lyn'thl-ac Orations of Demosthe- 
nes, 304. 

O-lyn'thus, 267, 270, 302. 

On-o-mar'chus, 301. 

Oracle, Delphic, 68, 77, 99-101, 109, 
131; of Olympia, 62; of Dodona, 
98, 99; of Ammon, 256, 314. 

Oratory, 141, 177, 289, 303 ; improve- 
ment in, 288. 

Or-chom'e-nus, 24, 279. 

Orient, imports from, 13, 38. 

Orientals, 129, 315. 

Or'pheus, 97. 

Or-tyg'i-a, 34. 

Ostracism, 83, 124, 149, 171. 

Outlines, examples of, 337-343. 

Patches, 198. 

Painters, 74, 158, 220. 

Palace of the Mycenaean Age, 5-7 ; 

in fourth century, 294. 
Pal-la'di-um, 47. 
Pal'Jas, 131 ; see Athena. 
Pam-phyl'i-a, 153. 



Pan, 225. 

Pan-ath-e-nae'a, 181, 184. 

Pan-e-gyr'i-cus of Isocrates, 290. 

Pan-gae'us, Mount, 301. 

Pan-Hel-len'ic, 184. 

Pan-I-o'ni-an League, 22; shrine, 
108 ; council, 109. 

Pa-nor'mus, 138. 

Par'a-lus, 236. 

Par-men'i-des, 95. 

Par-me'ni-on, 314, 

Par-nas'sus, Mount, 130. 

Par'nes, Mount, 254, 270. 

Par'non, Mount, 78. 

Pa'ros, 89, 122, 293. 

Par'the-non, 157, 180; frieze of, 64, 
177, 181 ; pediment of, 180. 

Par'thi-a, 326, 

Parties at Athens, tyrant's, 113, 124; 
republican, 117, 123, 124; demo- 
cratic, 124; conservative, 124, 148, 
202, 204; "better class" and 
people, 255. 

Paul'lus, Lucius ^milius, 327. 

Pau-sa'ni-as, regent of Lacedaemon, 
135,146,149; kingof Lacedaemon, 
254,264; Philip's assassin, 310. 

Pay for public services, 155, 174-176. 

Peace, after Peloponnesian War, 
237; among the Sicilian cities, 
203; of Nicias, 204; failure of, 
205 ; of Antalcidas, 266 ; conven- 
tion, 271 ; nursing Wealth, 285. 

Pediment of Parthenon, 180. 

Peers, Spartan, 258. 

Pe'gae, 164, 201. 

Pei-rae'us, 165, 171, 183, 192, 202, 
210, 211, 254, 288; harbor of, 117, 
263; fortification of, 146; Lace- 
daemonians attempt to seize, 270. 

Pei-san'der, 230, 232. 

Pe-las'gi-ans, 103. 

Pe-lop'i-das, 269, 270, 299; goes to 
Susa, 280 ; death of, 282. 

Pel-o-pon-nese', 25, 29, 32, 192, 322; 
earliest settlements in, 4-8 ; tyran- 
nies in, 64-70; citadel of Greece, 
143 ; ravaged, 196 ; anarchy in, 276 ; 
and Hellenic League, 308. 

Peloponnesian League, 77-79, 118, 
167 ; Athens joins, 85 ; enlarge- 



i 



Index 



?>77 



ment of, 127; and Delian Con- 
federacy, 151 ; members of, 203 ; 
threatens to dissolve, 204, 206. 

Peloponnesians, 131 ; army of, 134 ; 
allies of, 136, 195; invade Attica, 
196 ; celebrate peace, 238. 

Peioponnesian War, 190-238, 250 ; 
causes of, 190-194 ; change in char- 
acter, 200; to Sicilian Expedition, 
190-208 ; Sicilian Expedition, 208- 
216 ; closing years, 227-238 ; terms 
of peace, 237. 

Per-dic'cas, earlier king of Macedon, 
203 ; later king, 299, 300; successor 
of Alexander, 318. 

Per'ga-mum, 326. 

Per-i-an'der, 69. 

Per'i-cles, 183, 210; and Cimon, 156, 
164, 168; Age of, 163-189; saves 
Athens, 169 ; his colonization, 170, 
172; his democracy, 172-179; as 
general, 177 ; his internal improve- 
ments, 179-185 ; and the Athenian 
religion, 184 ; his friends, 186 ; his 
estimate of Athenian character, 
187 ; his troubles, 187 ; and Peio- 
ponnesian War, 192, 195 ; death of, 
197. 

Periods of Greek history, 331-337. 

Per-i-oe'ci, 60, 135, 251, 257, 278. 

Per-seph'o-ne, 92, 97, 184. 

Per'seus, son of Philip V, 327. 

Per'si-a, 106, 107, 113, 126, 132, 136, 
169, 185, 289, 298 ; policy of con- 
quest, 116; weakness of, 280; at 
war with Alexander, 311-316. 

Persian Empire, 107, 112, 116, 314. 

Persian Gulf, 316, 

Persians, 80, 85, 91, 105, 108, 110, iii, 
125, 183; contrasted witli Greeks, 
115 ; invade Greece, 120 ; at Mara- 
thon, 121 ; at Thermopylae, 128, 
129; at Mycale, 136; feared by 
Greeks, 143 ; Lacedaemon at war 
with, 263-266 ; and Alexander, 312. 

Persians, drama of ^schylus, 116, 

133- 
Peter the Great, 299. 
Pettifoggers, 252, 
Phae-a'ci-ans, 5, 6, 20. 
Pha'ianx, 203, 273. 



' Pha-le'rum, 47, 117, 165. 

Phar-na-ba'zus, 228. 

Phei'di-as, 159, 180, 183, 188, 294. 

Phei-dip'pi-des, 121. 

Phei'don, 25. 

Phe'rae, 298. 

Phil-a-deKphus, 320. 

Philip, son of Amyntas, 299-310; in 
Thebes, 300 ; ambitious policy, 300 ; 
and the Sacred War, 301 ; defeats 
Onomarchus, 302; character of, 
305 ; makes peace with Athens, 
306; greatest of Hellenes, 307; 
death of, 310. 

Philip V, 325. 

Philippic, First, of Demosthenes, 304. 

Phi-loc'ra-tes, peace of, 306. 

Philosophy, 105, 108, 186,292; early, 
92-96 ; New Learning, 217-227 ; of 
Plato, 290-292, 

Phi-lox'e-nus, 244. 

Pho'cis, 76, 167, 168, 301, 307. 

Phoeb'i-das, 268, 269. 

Phce'bus, see Apollo. 

Phoe-nic'i-ans, bring civilization, 3, 
8 ; in Sicily, 35 ; in service of Per- 
sia, 114, 116, 127, 229,262; of Car- 
thage, 138. 

Phor'mi-on, 198. 

Phryg'i-a, 318. 

Phryn'i-chus, dramatic poet, 115. 

Phy'le, a place in Attica, 254. 

Phyl'li-das, 270. 

Pin'dar, 35, 91, 159; in Sicily, 141; 
home of, 311. 

Pi-sis-trat'i-dae, tyranny of, 70-77; 
government of, 75. 

Pi-sis'tra-tus, 70, 105 ; tyranny of, 70- 
77 ; character of, 71 ; founder of 
Athenian diplomacy, 75. 

Plague at Athens, 196. 

Plane tree, golden, 280. 

Pla-tce'a, battle of, 136, 139 ; attacked 
by Thebans, 195 ; surrenders to 
Lacedaemonians, 199. 

Platoeans at Marathon, 122. 

Pla'to, 244, 290-292. 

Pleis-to'a-nax, 168. 

Plu'tarch, 26. 

Poetry, epic, 10; elegiac, 89; iambic, 
89; lyric, 90-92, 159; dramatic. 



378 



Index 



159-162, 185 ; comic, 222, 286 ; pas- 
toral, 322; decline of, 286. 
Poets, Alcasus, 90; Alcman, 63; 

^schylus, 159-162 ; Anacreon,74; 

Archilochus, 89 ; Aristophanes, 

222 ; Bacchylides, 91 ; Callinus, 89 ; 

Euripides, 220-222 ; Hesiod, 87 ; 

Homer, 10; Pindar, 91; Phryni- 

chus, 115 ; Sappho, 90 ; Simonides, 

91, 159 ; Solon, 50 ; Sophocles, 186 ; 

Theocritus, 322 ; Thespis, 74; Tyr- 

taeus, 62. 
PoFe-march, 83, 158; in battle of 

Marathon, 121 ; at Thebes, 269, 

270. 
Po'li-as, Athena, 181. ■ 
Pol'is, see City. 
Political Theory, 227, 232; of.Critias, 

252. 
Politics, interstate, 281. 
Po-lyc'ra-tes of Samos, 75. 
Pol-yg-no'tus, 158. 
Po-sei'don, 22, 25, 70, 181, 182. 
Pot-i-dse'a, 36 ; revolt of, 193. 
Pottery, 53. 
Prax-it'e-les, 294. 
Priestess of Apollo (Pythia), 56, 76, 

99. 
Priests of Apollo, loi, 130. 
Prom'a-chus, 183. 
Prophet, 13, 98, 202, 307. 
Pro-py-lae'a, 182. 
Prose, three departments of, 286. 
Pro-tag'o-ras, 218, 219. 
Provinces of the Persian empire 

(satrapies), 110. 
Pryt'a-ny, 176. 
Psam-met'i-chus, 38. 
PtoKe-my, 318, 320. 
Pyd'na, battle of, 327. 
Py'los, 201, 202, 206. 
Pyr'rhus, 248, 326. 
Py-thag'o-ras, 95, 291. 
Py-thag-o-re'ans, 95, 143, 292. 
Pyth'i-a, see Priestess of Apollo. 
Pythian chair, 307. 

Ranks, social, in Attica, 70, 

Religion, of Mycenaean Age, 7; of 
Epic Age, 15-17; of the colonies, i 
39 ; deepening, 97 ; of Lyric Age, j 



97-101 ; future life, 98 ; of ^schy- 
lus, 160; of Athens under Pericles, 
184; of Sophocles, 186; attitude 
of the sophists toward, 219; of 
Euripides, 221 ; of Aristophanes, 
222. 

Rents in early Attica, 49 ; under the 
Pisistratidas, 75, 

Republic of Plato, 292. 

Republican party in Athens, 117, 123, 
124. 

Rhe'gi-um, 137, 212. 

Rhetoric, 124, 141, 218, 288. 

Rhodes, 301,326. 

Rome, 34, 37, 53, 136, 142, 317 ; war 
with Greece, 325. 

Russia, I, 40. 

Sacred Band, 274. 
Sacred War, 66, 100, 301. 
Sacrifices by Lacedaemonian king, 

258. 
Sages, Seven, 50, 94. 
SaKa-mis, 50, 126, 132, 183; Greek 

fleet at, 130 ; battle of, 133. 
Sa'mi-ans, 136, 256. 
Sam'nites, 164, 243. 
Sa'mos, 75, 169, 228, 256 ; revolt of, 

171. 
Sap'pho, 87, 90. 
Sar-din'i-a, 109. 
Sar'dis, 113, 127, 261, 266. 
Sa-ron'ic Gulf, 49, 164, 183. 
Sa'trap, no, 280, 317. 
Sa'tyrs, 185, 225 ; of Praxiteles, 294. 
Sche'ri-a, 20. 
Schlie'mann, Dr., 5, 7. 
Science, 106 ; medical, 197 ; military, 

273; in time of Alexander, 316; in 

Alexandria, 321. 
Scip'i-o, 325. 
Sco'pas, 293. 
Sculpture, 66, 74, 159, 285 ; under 

Pericles, 179-181; in fourth cen- 
tury, 293-296. 
Scy'ros, 183, 266. 
Scyth'i-ans, no, 113. 
Sedition, Solon's law as to, 55, 83. 
Se-ges'ta, 194, 208, 212, 239. 
Se-le'ne, 180. 
Se-leu'ci-dae, 319, 320, 326. 



Index 



379 



Se-leu'cus, 318, 319. 

Se-li'nus, 208. 

Sep'tu-a-gint, 321. 

Shipbuilding, 36, 53, 126, 228, 301. 

Sic'els, 163, 241. 

Sicilian Expedition, 208-216; plans 
of commanders, 212; failure of, 
215 ; effects of, 227. 

Sic'i-Iy, 30, 34, 136, 208 ; prosperity 
of colonies, 35 ; wars of, with Car- 
thage, 136-139, 239-244; civiliza- 
tion of, 140; revolution in, 142; in 
Age of Pericles, 163, 171 ; Athens 
invades, 208-216 ; home of rheto- 
ric, 218. 

Sicily and Italy, end of freedom in, 
239-249. 

Sic'y-on (sish'i-on), 29, 64-67, 78, 

191. 323- 

Si-gei'um, 75, 80, 85, 113. 

Silver mines, 125. 

Si-mon'i-des, 90, 130, 159. 

Slavery, attitude of the sophists 
toward, 219, 220. 

Slaves, in Epic Age, 12, 13 ; for 
debt, 49 ; emancipated, 82, 256 ; in 
Attica, 178, 183. 

Soc'ra-tes, 223-226, 287, 290. 

Sog-di-a'na, 316. 

So'lon, 50-56, 63, 70, 72, 150, 252. 

Soothsayer, see Prophet. 

Sophists, 218 ; effects of their teach- 
ings, 219 ; and Socrates, 224. 

Soph'o-cles, 186, 222. 

Spar'ta, founding of, 27 ; and Taren- 
tum, 34 ; early history of, 56-63 ; 
and Peloponnesian League, 77-80, 
84-86; head of Greece, 119, 139, 
191 ; earthquake at, 154 ; con- 
trasted with Athens, 155 ; strong- 
hold of oligarchy, i66 ; supremacy 
of, 250-274 ; crisis at, 256 ; revo- 
lution threatening,. 258 ; in Co- 
rinthian War, 263-266; opposes 
federations, 266, 272 ; defeated at 
Leuctra, 273 ; becomes a second- 
rate power, 278; art in, 293; and 
Macedon, 310; loses indepen- 
dence, 325; see Lacedaemon. 

Spartans, first use heavy armor, 28 ; 
army of, 29, 60; found colony in 



Italy, 34 ; early conquests of, 57 ; 
education of, 57-59; culture of, 
58,62; women of, 58,59; govern- 
ment of, see Lacedaemon; and 
Croesus, 106 ; the Three Hundred, 
129; at Thermopylae, 129; at 
Plataea, 136 ; on Sphacteria, 205 ; 
and Syracusans, 213; see Lace- 
daemon, Sparta. 

Sphac-te'ri-a, 201, 205. 

Spho'dri-as, 270. 

Spies in camp of Xerxes, 127. 

States, and leagues, 20-30; city and 
territorial, 297. 

Ste-sag'o-ras, 76. 

Sthen-i-la'i-das, 194. 

Studies in Greek history, 343-355. 

Su'sa, III, 171, 280. 

Syb'a-ris, 32, 171. 

Syb'o-ta, battle of, 193. 

Syr-a-cuse', 128, 250, 288, 322; 
founding of, 34 ; under Gelon and 
Hieron, 136-143 ; and Ducetius, 
163 ; attacked by Athens, 208-216 ; 
joins Lacedaemon against Athens, 
229 ; under tyranny again, 239-247 ; 
under Timoleon, 247 ; under 
Agathocles, 248. 

Syr'i-a, 319, 327. 

Sys-si'ti-a, see Mess. 

Tactics, at Marathon, 121 ; at Delium, 
204 ; at Leuctra, 273 ; of Rome and 
Macedon, 326. 

Tan'a-gra, battle of, 166, 168. 

Ta-ren'tum, 34, 248. 

Te'ge-a, ^-j, 148. 

Tei-san'der, 65. 

Tei'si-as, 218. 

Tem'pe, vale of, 128. 

Temple, 105, 130, 179, 293. 

Tenants in early Attica, 49. • 

Ten Thousand, journey of the, 262, 
287. 

Te'os, 109. 

Ter-il'lus, 137. 

Ter-pan'der, 62. 

Tha'les, 94, 108, 109, 217. 

Tha'sos, 153. 

The-ag'e-nes, 45. 

Theatre, 275, 286, 293. 



38o 



hidex 



Thebes, i86, 199, 270, 299; leader- 
ship of, 24, 166, 266; extent of 
territory, 29 ; harbors exiles from 
Athens, 253, 254 ; and Sparta, 263 ; 
free from Sparta, 270; subdues 
Boeotian towns, 271 ; and peace 
convention, 273; attempts to gain 
supremacy, 275-283; defects in 
policy of, 279 ; calls Persia in, 280 ; 
enters Hellenic League against 
Philip, 308; destroyed by Alex- 
ander, 311, 

The-mis'to-cles, 131, 164,200; arch- 
onship of, 117; genius of, 125; 
naval decree of, 126; compels 
Greeks to fight at Salamis, 132; 
outwits Lacedaemon, 144; forti- 
fies Peiraeus, 146 ; in Amphicty- 
onic Council, 148 ; ostracism of, 
149 ; end of, 150. 

The-oc'ri-tus, 321. 

The-og^o-ny of Hesiod, 87. 

The-ram'e-nes, and the Four Hun- 
dred, 232 ; and the generals, 235 ; 
and the franchise, 253; death of, 

253- 

Ther-mop'y-lae, 128, 301, 307, 308, 
322 ; battle of, 129, 278. 

The'ron, 137, 142, 240. 

The-sei'um, 183. 

The'seus, myth of, 26, 181, 183. 

Thes-moth'e-tae, see Legislators. 

Thes'pi-as, 279. 

Thes'pis, 74, 185. 

Thes'sa-ly, 28, 66, 75, 128, 134, 147, 
164, 322, 326; under Jason of 
Pherae, 297 ; under Philip of Mace- 
don, 298, 302. 

The'tes in Attica, 44, 45, 54. 

Thirty, the, at Athens, 251-254, 289. 

Thrace, 53, 116, 118, 153, 302. 

Thras-y-bu'lus, 231, 235, 269 ; against 
the Thirty, 254 ; and the franchise, 

255- 
Thu-cyd'i-des, the historian, 187, 203, 

226, 286, 287, 304 ; son of Melesias, 

170. 
Thu'ri-i, 172, 185, 212. 
Ti'ber, 325. 
Ti'gris, 319. 
Ti-moc'ra-cy at Athens, 43-50, 54. 



Ti-mo'le-on, 245-248. 

Tir-a-ba'zus, 266. 

Tir'yns, 4-7. 

Tis-sa-pher'nes, 228, 229, 261, 262. 

Tombs at Mycenae, 7. 

Townships (naucraries), 44 ; (demes), 
81, 82. 

Treasurers, 54, 106. 

Treaty, early, 67, 78, 96; for Five 
Years, 168 ; for Thirty Years, 169, 
191, 193-195, 204; between Athens 
and Persia, 169; between Athens 
and Lacedaemon, 201, 206; for 
One Year, 204 ; in Sicily, 208 ; 
ended on ten days' notice, 209 ; 
between Lacedaemon and Persia, 
228 ; between Dionysius I and 
Carthage, 241 ; of Antalcidas, 265, 
(renewed) 272 ; of Philocrates, 306. 

Trial in Epic Age, 14; see Court, 

Tribal Age, 3. 

Tribes, i, 39, 99, 297 ; the four Ionic, 
21 ; leaders of, 42 ; early Attic, 44 ; 
Dorian, 66 ; of Cleisthenes, 81 ; of 
Sicels, 163 ; of Samnites, 164 ; 
Thessalian, 29, 298; Macedonian, 
299. 

Tributes, Athenian, 169, 194, 202, 208 ; 
Lacedaemonian, 79, 256; Lydian, 
106, no; Persian, no, 228. 

Tri'remes, 133 ; see Navy. 

Trce'zen, 167, 201. 

Tro'jan War, 221. 

Troy 'land, 312. 

Truce, see Treaty. 

Turkish rule, 329. 

Tyranny, character of, 67, 85 ; decline 
of, 68; of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, 
64-67; of the Cypselidce, 68-70; 
of the Pisistratidae, 70-80 ; of Pol- 
ycrates, 75; of Miltiades, 116; of 
Gelon, 136-141 ; of Hieron, 140- 
142; of the Thirty, 251-254; of 
Sparta rouses resistance, 268. 

Tyrants, 45, no, 113, 128, 136. 

Tyre, siege of, 313. 

Tyr-tae'us, 57, 62, 89. 

Unity, movement toward national, 
87, 104, 118; after Peloponnesian 
War, 250, 267. 



Index 



381 



University in Alexandria, 321. 

Victory, Wingless, 183. 
Village, primitive, 2, 21. 
Voters in Attica, number of, 178. 

Walls, Long, see Long Walls. 

War, Sacred, 66, 100, 301 ; between 
Sparta and Argolis, 78, 108 ; be- 
tween Athens and her neighbors, 
84, 85; with Persia, 91, loi, 112, 
120-136, 191, 261 ; of Asiatic Greeks 
with Lydians and Persians, 105- 
115; between Europe and Asia, 
115; with Carthage, 136-139; Pelo- 
ponnesian, 190-238 ; between 
Athens and Sicily, 208-216; Co- 
rinthian, 263-266; between Lace- 
daemon and Thebes, 273 ; between 
Athens and Philip, 300; Social, 
301 ; between Alexander and 
Darius, 311-316; Lamian, 322; 
between Greece and Rome, 325, 
327. 



Wingless Victory, 183. 

Women, in Mycenaean Age, 7 ; in 

Epic Age, 12; in Solon's time, 53; 

Spartan, 59 ; in time of the tyrants, 

74; attitude of Euripides toward, 

220. 
Wooden Wall, 132. 
Works and Days of Hesiod, 87. 

Xan-thip'pus, 123. 
Xe-noph'a-nes, 95, 97, 
Xen'o-phon, 261, 286-288. 
Xerx'es, 126-134, 138. 

Za-cyn'thus, 194. 

Za-leu'cus, 32. 

Ze'no, 186. 

Ze^hus, 24. 

Zeu-gi'tae, 44, 173. 

Zeus, II, 12, 16, 27, 30, 98, 109, 180; 

temple of, 73; of ^schylus, 160; 

Alexander son of, 314. 
Zoological gardens in Alexandria, 

320. 



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